Standard test signals and order

of the system
Order of a system
• Order of the system is defined as the order of the differential
equation governing the system. Order of the system can be
determined from the transfer function of the system. Also the
order of the system helps in understanding the number of poles
of the transfer function. For nth order system for a particular
transfer function contains ‘n’ number of poles.
First order system
• A first order control system is defined as a type of control system
whose input-output relationship (also known as a transfer function) is
a first-order differential equation. A first-order differential equation
contains a first-order derivative, but no derivative higher than the first
order. The order of a differential equation is the order of the highest
order derivative present in the equation.
The transfer function (input-output relationship) for this control system is defined as:
  
Where:
•K is the DC Gain (DC gain of the system ratio between the input signal and the steady-state value of
output)
T is the time constant of the system (the time constant is a measure of how quickly a first-order system
responds to a unit step input)
Remember that the order of a differential equation is the order of the highest order derivative present in
the equation. We evaluate this with respect to .

Since here s is to the first power (s^1 = s), the transfer function above is a first-order differential
equation. Hence the block diagram above represents a first-order control system.
The order of a control system is determined by the power of ‘s’ in the denominator of its transfer function. If
the power of s in the denominator of the transfer function of a control system is 2, then the system is said to
be second order control system. The general expression of the transfer function of a second order control
system is given as

Here, ζ and ωn are the damping ratio and natural frequency of the system, respectively (we will learn about
these two terms in detail later on). Rearranging the formula above, the output of the system is given as

system is given as
Using this as a base, we will analyze the time response of a second order control system. Will will do this by
analyzing the unit step response of a second order control system in the frequency domain, before converting
it into the time domain