KBS Development

The Knowledge Based System (KBS) has two main objectives, the provision of easy access to all the industrial and scientific codes through an executive program, and the provision of an easy to use user interface for the analysis codes. The user interface is designed to minimize the effort expended in dealing with the mechanics of using a computer, allowing the user to concentrate on seal design and analysis

Real wages in the 1980s

Wages ; Purchasing power

Growth and Business Cycles for the Swedish Economy 1963-1999

This paper consists of two parts. In the first part we carry out a traditional growth accounting exercise for the private business sectors of the Swedish economy. We search for structural breaks during the sample period, using Chow tests, using a dynamic specification of Total Factor Productivity (TFP). In order to facilitate comparisons we compare the results of this study both with other Swedish and international studies. To a large extent we are able to replicate the results of this study with Swedish results. The slow down in TFP growth rates in the 1970s can be identified with the first and second oil shocks in 1973 and 1979. The other structural breaks in the 1990s can be identified with the Swedish Tax Reform (1991), The Granger causality test indicate that the growth rates in investment Granger cause growth rates in TFP for agriculture and financial institutions, real estate and other business, while TFP growth rates in mining and quarrying and manufacturing Granger cause growth rates in investment. The second part of the paper Hodrick-Prescott filter the data and calculate cross correlations of detrended output, hours, investment and TFP at different leads and lags. The results indicate that investment leads TFP for agriculture, hunting forestry and fishing, electricity gas and water, education health and social work. Investment lags TFP for the mining and quarrying and manufacturing companies. The decomposition of TFP into trend and cyclical component historically dates the Swedish business cycle.growth accounting, labour productivity, total factor productivity, growth dynamics,Hodrick-Prescott filtering, leads and lags, new economy

Oil prices, exchange rates and the U.S. economy: an empirical investigation

Power resources - Prices ; Dollar, American ; Petroleum industry and trade ; Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

Real interest rates

Interest rates ; Monetary policy - United States

A computational method for simulating dispersed two-phase flows using the PDF approach

The thesis presents a Probability Density Function (PDF)-derived Eulerian/Eulerian model for the prediction of dispersed two-phase (solid/gas) flows. Continuum equations for the dispersed phase are formulated from the Kinetic Model (KM) PDF transport equations. The Kinetic stresses of the dispersed phase are determined from an algebraic stress model (ASM) together with a KM-based transport equation for the fluctuating kinetic energy. The continuum equations for the continuous phase are assumed to be the same as those in the Eulerian two-fluid model except for the interfacial momentum and energy transfer terms. Closures for these terms are derived from the PDF KM and mirror their counterparts in the dispersed phase equations. Also, the carrier phase turbulence is modelled by the standard k-ε model. These transport equations are solved using the numerical framework of an existing two-fluid approach. Furthermore, the current two-fluid model practice of applying wall functions to impose boundary conditions is adapted for application to the particulate phase. Such wall functions are calculated from the PDF KM itself. In this approach, the PDF equations are pre-integrated using the fully developed flow assumption along the wall to relate wall fluxes to values of the relevant variables in the interior of the flow. Such integration is utilised to create a wall functions database for a range of mean flow conditions. The model is validated against a range of both unbounded and bounded flow cases. Comparisons are made with experimental data as well as the results of other computational methods. It was found that the proposed model performs very well in capturing particulate behaviour and improves, in certain aspects, on the performance of traditional two-fluid models while retaining the practicality of the latter model for industrial applications. In particular, a reasonable capture of the particulate dispersion was observed within jet flows. Improvements were also seen in the prediction of mass flux distribution in shear layers and an accurate capture of near-wall mass distributions in bounded flows

The recent behavior of interest rates

Interest rates ; Monetary policy - United States

Trade and growth: some recent evidence

International trade ; East Asia ; Economic development - Pacific Basin