Macroeconomic impact from extending working lives (WP95)

This report presents findings from research, conducted by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) and funded by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). NIESR were commissioned to use their global econometric model, NiGEM, in order to model various scenarios involving extending working lives, and to quantify the macroeconomic effects therein. The core scenario is a one year increase in working life for the UK population that is gradually phased in over the period 2010-14. In addition to this, NIESR carried out a series of counterfactual analyses which modelled the loss to the economy from older people leaving the labour market early

Mode-matching without root-finding: Application to a dissipative silencer

This article presents an analytic mode-matching approach suitable for modelling the propagation of sound in a two-dimensional, three-part, ducting system. The approach avoids the need to the find roots of the characteristic equation for the middle section of the duct (the component) and is readily applicable to a broad class of problems. It is demonstrated that the system of equations, derived via analytic mode-matching, exhibits certain features which ensure that they can be re-cast into a form that is independent of the roots of the characteristic equation for the component. The precise details of the component are irrelevant to the procedure; it is required only that there exists an orthogonality relation, or similar, for the eigenmodes corresponding to the propagating wave-forms in this region. The method is applied here to a simple problem involving acoustic transmission through a dissipative silencer of the type commonly found in heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) ducts. With reference to this example, the silencer transmission loss is computed, and the power balance for the silencer is investigated and is shown to be an identity that is necessarily satisfied by the system of equations, regardless of the level of truncation

Transmission loss predictions for dissipative silencers of arbitrary cross section in the presence of mean flow

A numerical technique is developed for the analysis of dissipative silencers of arbitrary, but axially uniform, cross section. Mean gas flow is included in a central airway which is separated from a bulk reacting porous material by a concentric perforate screen. The analysis begins by employing the finite element method to extract the eigenvalues and associated eigenvectors for a silencer of infinite length. Point collocation is then used to match the expanded acoustic pressure and velocity fields in the silencer chamber to those in the inlet and outlet pipes. Transmission loss predictions are compared with experimental measurements taken for two automotive dissipative silencers with elliptical cross sections. Good agreement between prediction and experiment is observed both without mean flow and for a mean flow Mach number of 0.15. It is demonstrated also that the technique presented offers a considerable reduction in computational expenditure when compared to a three dimensional finite element analysis

On the scattering of longitudinal elastic waves from axisymmetric defects in coated pipes

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Journal of Sound and Vibration. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.Viscoelastic coatings are widely used to protect pipelines from their surrounding environment. These coatings are known to attenuate ultrasonic waves guided along the pipe walls, which may limit the range of a pulse/echo based inspection technique that seeks to detect defects in a pipeline. This article aims to investigate the attenuation of longitudinal modes in a coated pipe by comparing predicted and measured values for the reflection coefficient of an axisymmetric defect in a pipe coated with bitumen. This extends recent work undertaken by the authors for torsional modes, and also provides an independent investigation into the validity of those values proposed by the authors for the shear properties of bitumen, based on a comparison between prediction and experiment for torsional modes. Predictions are generated using a numerical mode matching approach for axially uniform defects, and a hybrid finite element based method for non-uniform defects. Values for the shear and longitudinal properties of bitumen are investigated and it is shown that the shear properties of the viscoelastic material play a dominant role in the propagation of longitudinal modes in a coated pipeline. Moreover, by using the shear values obtained from experiments on torsional modes, it is shown that good agreement between prediction and measurement for uniform and non-uniform defects may also be obtained for the longitudinal L(0,2) mode. This provides further validation for the shear bulk acoustic properties proposed for bitumen in the low ultrasonic frequency range, although in order to apply this methodology in general it is demonstrated that one must measure independently the reflection coefficient of both the torsional T(0,1) and the longitudinal L(0,2) mode before arriving at values for the shear properties of a viscoelastic material

A hybrid finite element approach to modeling sound radiation from circular and rectangular ducts

This is the post-print version of the Article - Copyright @ 2012 Acoustical Society of AmericaA numerical model based on a hybrid finite element method is developed that seeks to join sound pressure fields in interior and exterior regions. The hybrid method is applied to the analysis of sound radiation from open pipes, or ducts, and uses mode matching to couple a finite element discretization of the region surrounding the open end of the duct to wave based modal expansions for adjoining interior and exterior regions. The hybrid method facilitates the analysis of ducts of arbitrary but uniform cross section as well the study of conical flanges and here a modal expansion based on spherical harmonics is applied. Predictions are benchmarked against analytic solutions for the limiting cases of flanged and unflanged circular ducts and excellent agreement between the two methods is observed. Predictions are also presented for flanged and unflanged rectangular ducts, and because the hybrid method retains the sparse banded and symmetric matrices of the traditional finite element method, it is shown that predictions can be obtained within an acceptable time frame even for a three dimensional problem.This study is supported by the U.K. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

Ray-Singer Torsion for a Hyperbolic 3-Manifold and Asymptotics of Chern-Simons-Witten Invariant

The Ray-Singer torsion for a compact smooth hyperbolic 3-dimensional manifold ${\cal H}^3$ is expressed in terms of Selberg zeta-functions, making use of the associated Selberg trace formulae. Applications to the evaluation of the semiclassical asymptotics of the Witten's invariant for the Chern-Simons theory with gauge group SU(2) as well as to the sum over topologies in 3-dimensional quantum gravity are presented.Comment: Latex file, 15 pages. Some improvements, grammatical mistakes and typos correcte

On the scattering of elastic waves from a non-axisymmetric defect in a coated pipe

Viscoelastic coatings are often used to protect pipelines in the oil and gas industry. However, over time defects and areas of corrosion often form in these pipelines and so it is desirable to monitor the structural integrity of these coated pipes using techniques similar to those used on uncoated pipelines. A common approach is to use ultrasonic guided waves that work on the pulse-echo principle; however, the energy in the guided waves can be heavily attenuated by the coating and so significantly reduce the effective range of these techniques. Accordingly, it is desirable to develop a better understanding of how these waves propagate in coated pipes with a view to optimising test methodologies, and so this article uses a hybrid SAFE-finite element approach to model scattering from non-axisymmetric defects in coated pipes. Predictions are generated in the time and frequency domain and it is shown that the longitudinal family of modes is likely to have a longer range in coated pipes when compared to torsional modes. Moreover, it is observed that the energy velocity of modes in a coated pipe is very similar to the group velocity of equivalent modes in uncoated pipes. It is also observed that the coating does not induce any additional mode conversion over and above that seen for an uncoated pipe when an incident wave is scattered by a defect. Accordingly, it is shown that when studying coated pipes one need account only for the attenuation imparted by the coating so that one may normally neglect the effect of coating on modal dispersion and scattering

Spatial fuzzy c-means thresholding for semiautomated calculation of percentage lung ventilated volume from hyperpolarized gas and (1) H MRI

Purpose To develop an image-processing pipeline for semiautomated (SA) and reproducible analysis of hyperpolarized gas lung ventilation and proton anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan pairs. To compare results from the software for total lung volume (TLV), ventilated volume (VV), and percentage lung ventilated volume (%VV) calculation to the current manual “basic” method and a K-means segmentation method. Materials and Methods Six patients were imaged with hyperpolarized 3He and same-breath lung 1H MRI at 1.5T and six other patients were scanned with hyperpolarized 129Xe and separate-breath 1H MRI. One expert observer and two users with experience in lung image segmentation carried out the image analysis. Spearman (R), Intraclass (ICC) correlations, Bland–Altman limits of agreement (LOA), and Dice Similarity Coefficients (DSC) between output lung volumes were calculated. Results When comparing values of %VV, agreement between observers improved using the SA method (mean; R = 0.984, ICC = 0.980, LOA = 7.5%) when compared to the basic method (mean; R = 0.863, ICC = 0.873, LOA = 14.2%) nonsignificantly (pR = 0.25, pICC = 0.25, and pLOA = 0.50 respectively). DSC of VV and TLV masks significantly improved (P < 0.01) using the SA method (mean; DSCVV = 0.973, DSCTLV = 0.980) when compared to the basic method (mean; DSCVV = 0.947, DSCTLV = 0.957). K-means systematically overestimated %VV when compared to both basic (mean overestimation = 5.0%) and SA methods (mean overestimation = 9.7%), and had poor agreement with the other methods (mean ICC; K-means vs. basic = 0.685, K-means vs. SA = 0.740). Conclusion A semiautomated image processing software was developed that improves interobserver agreement and correlation of lung ventilation volume percentage when compared to the currently used basic method and provides more consistent segmentations than the K-means method. Level of Evidence: 3 Technical Efficacy: Stage

The influence of baffle fairings on the acoustic performance of rectangular splitter silencers

A numerical model based on the finite element method is developed for a finite length, HVAC splitter silencer. The model includes an arbitrary number of bulk-reacting splitters separated from the airway by a thin perforated metal sheet and accommodates higher order modes in the incident sound field. Each perforated sheet is joined to rigid, impervious, metallic fairing situated at either end of a splitter. The transmission loss for the silencer is quantified by application of the point collocation technique, and predictions are compared to experimental measurements reported in the literature. The splitter fairing is shown to significantly affect silencer performance, especially when higher order incident modes are present. It is concluded that laboratory measurements, and theoretical predictions, that are based on a predominantly plane wave sound source are unlikely to reflect accurately the true performance of an HVAC silencer in a real ducting system

BUDGET PERSPECTIVES 2009. RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 4 OCTOBER 2008

The context for this year’s Budget differs sharply from most of those in the past decade and a half. The global economy has been buffeted by crises in financial markets. Oil prices, even after recent falls, are at very high levels. Furthermore, the sharp decline in housing activity in Ireland carries negative implications both for employment and for tax revenues. A consequence of the changed situation is that the date of the 2009 Budget has been brought forward by eight weeks. This year’s Budget Perspectives Conference, co-hosted by The Economic and Social Research Institute and the Foundation for Fiscal Studies, provides several inputs to inform macroeconomic decision making in these challenging times. In addition, two longer-term issues are addressed. The first of these deals with the policy framework for climate change, an issue that has risen rapidly on the Irish policy horizon in recent years. The second issue is the effectiveness of public spending in achieving its objectives in the area of sport, which is now recognised as an important contributor to health and quality of life in modern society