Term Structure Behavior Research Articles

Characteristics of Carbon and Kevlar Fibres, Their Composites and Structural Applications in Civil Engineering-A Review.

Kevlar and carbon fibres and fabrics have won a leading place in the structure market, although such materials are not cheap, and are increasingly used for reinforcing and strengthening structural elements in the civil engineering, automotive, aerospace and military industries, due to their superior mechanical properties, especially in terms of strength. The mechanical characteristics of such composite materials must be known in order to numerically simulate the mechanical behaviour of such structures in terms of the distribution of stresses and strains. It has also become a necessity to understand the effects of reinforcement with both types of fibres (carbon fibres and Kevlar fibres) on the mechanical properties, especially on the impact properties of such composites. This review aims to expose the main advantages and disadvantages of the hybridization of carbon and Kevlar fibres. For this reason, an overview is presented concerning the main characteristics (tensile strength, flexural strength, impact strength, coefficient of thermal expansion and so on) for carbon and Kevlar fibres and also for hybrid Kevlar-carbon composite materials to aid in the design of such hybrid composite materials. Finally, some civil construction rehabilitation and consolidation applications of the composites reinforced with carbon fibre, Kevlar fibre or with hybrid Kevlar-carbon fabrics are highlighted in the last part of the paper.

Response of Tall Structures Along Face Exposed to Blast Load Applied at Varying Distance

Blast loads caused by explosives are unexpected loads. These loads cause huge damage to the structure and decrease the strength and durability of structure, especially for elevated buildings. Therefore study of such loads is of major importance. In the present study, G+10 floors with second, third and end bays is modelled using ETABS and sudden impact dynamic load analysis is carried out. The analysis is carried out on the face directly exposed to the blast load for 7 building models. The blast loads are obtained with the help of TM5-1300 manual as well as ATBLAST software and Structure is designed in ETABS software by non-linear time history analysis. The results of this study help in understanding the behaviour of tall structures in terms of drift, displacement, joint acceleration and shear. Observations show that Model 7 is found to have extreme shear, storey displacement and inter-story drift. The research on examination of tall structures subjected to explosion is helpful in coming up with a better, cost-effective design for blast resistant structures.

Directional decomposition and properties of thunderstorm outflows

Thunderstorm outflows are usually analysed by decomposing their horizontal velocity into a slowly-varying mean part and a residual fluctuation; in this framework the wind direction is often examined qualitatively but disregarded quantitatively. This is incoherent with the traditional analysis of synoptic wind speeds, where the mean velocity and direction are first determined, then the fluctuations are decomposed in terms of longitudinal and lateral turbulence components. Aiming to overcome these shortcomings, a novel directional decomposition strategy is formulated here, which makes the study of thunderstorm outflows and synoptic winds fully coherent. The results provided by the classic and novel decomposition rules are first compared and elucidated with reference to a couple of real thunderstorm and synoptic wind velocity records. Later on, they are applied to a broad class of thunderstorm outflow records whose statistical properties are investigated. The novel approach is strategic to carry out directional analyses of the dynamic behaviour of structures in terms of alongwind and crosswind response.

Dynamic behaviour of a concrete building under a mainshock–aftershock seismic sequence with a concrete damage plasticity material model

ABSTRACTThe aim of this paper was to investigate the dynamic response of a concrete structure subjected to a mainshock–aftershock seismic sequence. In the dynamic analysis, three components of the registered mainshock and aftershock were taken into account. The peak ground accelerations of about 0.5 g were assumed for both shocks. A one-storey shed was modelled with the ABAQUS software to represent a large concrete structure under the repeated earthquakes. For proper characterization of concrete structure behaviour under the sequence of shocks, a concrete damage plasticity model was assumed as a constitutive model of concrete. The obtained results indicate that aftershocks can have considerable effect on dynamic behaviour of concrete structures in terms of enlarging zones affected by irreversible strains or additional damage evolution. The analysis revealed that aftershocks, which are usually not as strong as mainshocks, may result even in total loss of concrete material strength while performing in mainshock–aftershock seismic sequences.

Market Anticipation of Fed Policy Changes and the Term Structure of Interest Rates*

The Federal Reserve adjusts the federal funds target rate discretely, causing discontinuity in short-term interest rates. Unlike Poisson jumps, these adjustments are well anticipated by the market. We propose a term structure model that incorporates an anticipated jump component with known arrival times but random jump size. We find that doing so improves the model performance in capturing the term structure behavior. The mean jump sizes extracted from the term structure match the realized target rate changes well. Specification analysis indicates that the jump sizes show strong serial dependence and dependence on the interest-rate factors.

Accounting for a Shift in Term Structure Behavior with No‐Arbitrage and Macro‐Finance Models

This paper examines a shift in the dynamics of the term structure of interest rates in the United States during the mid‐1980s. We document this shift using standard interest rate regressions and using dynamic, affine, no‐arbitrage models estimated for the pre‐ and post‐shift subsamples. The term structure shift largely appears to be the result of changes in the pricing of risk associated with a “level” factor. Using a macro‐finance model, we suggest a link between this shift in term structure behavior and changes in the dynamics and risk pricing of the Federal Reserve's inflation target as perceived by investors.

The Cyclical Properties of the Term Structure of Interest Rates

This paper studies whether three macroeconomic models (Real Business Cycle Model, Sticky Price Model, and Liquidity Effects Model) similar to those studied in King and Watson - (1996) can generate the behavior of nominal and real term structure found in data. Differing from King and Watson - (1996), we use data on UK index-linked bonds to get a better measure of ex-ante real interest rates. It is found that among the three models the sticky price model generates term structure behavior that matches data findings most closely. The sticky price model is able to generate the downward-sloping average real term structure, the upward-sloping average nominal term structure for maturities between 2 and 6 years, the cyclical property of nominal and real yield spread and 1-year nominal and real interest rates.

Market Anticipation of Fed Policy Changes and the Term Structure of Interest Rates

The Federal Reserve adjusts the target federal funds rate discretely, causing discontinuity in short-term interest rates. However, unlike random Poisson jumps, these adjustments are well anticipated by the market. Within the affine term structure framework, we incorporate an anticipated jump component with known arrival times, but random jump size. We find that doing so improves the model performance in capturing the term structure behavior. When we examine anticipated jump components for the term structure in other economies, we find that it is present in the euro term structure, but absent from Japanese interest rates.

Accounting for a Shift in Term Structure Behavior with No-Arbitrage and Macro-Finance Models

Accounting for a Shift in Term Structure Behavior with No-Arbitrage and Macro-Finance Models

The Recent Shift in Term Structure Behavior from a No-arbitrage Macro-finance Perspective

This paper examines a recent shift in the dynamics of the term structure and interest rate risk. We first use standard yield-spread regressions to document such a shift in the U.S. in the mid-1980s. Over the pre- and post-shift subsamples, we then estimate dynamic, affine, no-arbitrage models, which exhibit a significant difference in behavior that can be largely attributed to changes over time in the pricing of risk associated with a level factor. Finally, we suggest a link between the shift in term structure behavior and changes in the risk and dynamics of the inflation target as perceived by investors.

The Pavlovian Response of Term Rates to Fed Announcements

The traditional view of the monetary transmission mechanism rests on the premise that the Federal Reserve (Fed) controls the level of the Federal funds rate via open market operations and the liquidity effect. By contrast, this paper argues that the Fed also manipulates the Federal funds rate via public disclosures of the new level of the Federal funds rate target and the effect.'''' We define the announcement effect as the portion of interest rate movements associated with public statements on interest rate targets that do not require conventional open market operations for their support. This paper provides evidence on how the Fed uses the liquidity effect in conjunction with the announcement effect to execute monetary policy. In addition, it investigates the implications of the announcement effect on term structure behavior and the rational expectations hypothesis.

The Pavlovian Response of Term Rates to Fed Announcements

The traditional view of the monetary transmission mechanism rests on the premise that the Federal Reserve (Fed) controls the level of the federal funds rate via open market operations and the liquidity effect. By contrast, this paper argues that the Fed also manipulates the federal funds rate via public disclosures of the new level of the federal funds rate target and the ""announcement effect."" We define the announcement effect as the portion of interest rate movements associated with public statements on interest rate targets that do not require conventional open market operations for their support. This paper provides evidence on how the Fed uses the liquidity effect in conjunction with the announcement effect to execute monetary policy. In addition, it investigates the implications of the announcement effect in term structure behavior and the rational expectations hypothesis.