Digital Commons Network^™

Modeling Of High-Pressure Entrained-Flow Char Oxidation, Daniel Gundersen

Theses and Dissertations

Coal plays a significant role in electricity production worldwide and will into the foreseeable future. Technologies that improve efficiency and lower emissions are becoming more popular. High pressure reactors and oxyfuel combustion can offer these benefits. Designing new reactors effectively requires accurate single particle modeling. This work models a high-pressure, high-temperature, high-heating rate, entrained-flow, char oxidation data set to generate kinetic parameters. Different modeling methods were explored and a sensitivity analysis on char burnout was performed by varying parameters such as total pressure, O2 partial pressure, O2 and CO2 mole fractions, gas temperature, diameter, and pre-exponential factor. Pressure effects on …

Machine Learning With Gradient-Based Optimization Of Nuclear Waste Vitrification With Uncertainties And Constraints, Lagrande Gunnell, Kyle Manwaring, Xiaonan Lu, Jacob Reynolds, John Vienna, John Hedengren

Faculty Publications

Gekko is an optimization suite in Python that solves optimization problems involving mixed-integer, nonlinear, and differential equations. The purpose of this study is to integrate common Machine Learning (ML) algorithms such as Gaussian Process Regression (GPR), support vector regression (SVR), and artificial neural network (ANN) models into Gekko to solve data based optimization problems. Uncertainty quantification (UQ) is used alongside ML for better decision making. These methods include ensemble methods, model-specific methods, conformal predictions, and the delta method. An optimization problem involving nuclear waste vitrification is presented to demonstrate the benefit of ML in this field. ML models are compared …

Landscape Genetics Of The Camas Pocket Gopher (Thomomys Bulbivorus), An Endemic Mammal Of Oregon’S Willamette Valley, Luke E. Painter, Matthew J. Weldy, Rachel S. Crowhurst, Leslie N. Carraway, Clinton W. Epps

Western North American Naturalist

Animal species living in small populations with small ranges may be particularly vulnerable to habitat loss and fragmentation. We investigated genetic population structure of the camas pocket gopher (Thomomys bulbivorus), a species endemic to the Willamette Valley, Oregon, an area strongly affected by human development. Pocket gophers collected across much of the range of the species were analyzed for genetic structure, diversity, and influences of landscape on gene flow using microsatellite markers identified in closely related gopher species. We used k-means clustering to group individuals into genetically similar clusters based on their locations along principal component axes, and …

Arabs: A 3,000 Year History Of Peoples, Tribes, And Empires By Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Garrett Maxwell

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Tidally Generated Internal Waves From Dual-Ridge Topography, Ian Derik Sanderson

Theses and Dissertations

Internal waves are generated in stratified fluids, like the ocean, where density increases with depth. Tides are one of the major generation mechanisms of internal waves. As the tides move water back and forth over underwater topography, internal waves can be generated. Topography slope and amplitude are major factors in the behavior of the generated internal wave field. In order to further understand the effects topographic shape plays, the effect of asymmetry on internal waves is investigated. This research investigates internal waves generated by dual-ridge topographies. Four cases of symmetric topographies, T, M, W, and W2, with three different peak …

Meshless Large Eddy Simulation Of Propeller-Wing Interactions With Reformulated Vortex Particle Method, Eduardo Alvarez, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

The vortex particle method (VPM) has gained popularity in recent years due to a growing need to predict complex aerodynamic interactions during preliminary design of electric multirotor aircraft. However, VPM is known to be numerically unstable when vortical structures break down close to the turbulent regime. In recent work, the VPM has been reformulated as a large eddy simulation (LES) in a scheme that is both meshless and numerically stable, without increasing its computational cost. In this study, we build upon this meshless LES scheme to create a solver for interactional aerodynamics. Rotor blades are introduced through an actuator line …

Techno-Economic Sensitivity Analysis For Combined Design And Operation Of A Small Modular Reactor Hybrid Energy System, Daniel Hill, Adam Martin, Nathanael Martin-Nelson, Charles Granger, Kody Powell, John Hedengren

Faculty Publications

With increasing grid-penetration of renewable energy resources and a rising need for carbon-free dispatchable power generation, nuclear-hybrid energy systems (NHES), consisting of small modular reactors, are an increasingly attractive option for maintaining grid stability. NHES can accomplish this with a minimal carbon footprint but there are significant uncertainties that are not fully understood. This work describes and demonstrates methods for analyzing the uncertainties of potential NHES designs, including uncertain design parameters and time series as well as variations in dispatch horizon length. The proposed methods are demonstrated on a sample system with 16 design parameters, 3 uncertain time series, and …

Jeal 175 Full Issue

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

A Reflection On The Challenges And Collaborative Potential In Working With Buddhist Studies Materials In East Asian Librarianship, Matthew Hayes

Journal of East Asian Libraries

This article explores a set of shared challenges that tend to emerge for East Asian Librarians in working with Buddhist studies materials. It outlines how Buddhist linguistic conventions can give rise to an unpredictability in reference work, how its historical textual practices can complicate collections development, and how Buddhist temple archive management can make traditional approaches to research advising unreliable. It also proposes that these challenges provide distinct opportunities for collaboration across Chinese, Japanese, and Korean areas of bibliographic coverage. These challenges offer a chance for librarians to work together and develop a standard, field-wide toolset for working with these …

Modified Transient Hot-Wire Needle Probe For Experimentally Measuring Thermal Conductivity Of Molten Salts, Brian N. Merritt

Theses and Dissertations

Molten salts are high-temperature heat transfer fluids intended for cooling and/or storage purposes in a variety of energy applications. The current work seeks to ultimately study the thermophysical properties of fluoride and chloride salts, which are commonly considered for use in advanced nuclear reactors. Thermophysical properties like thermal conductivity are fundamental to ensuring safe, efficient, and competitive designs for advanced commercial nuclear reactors. Measurement challenges with liquid salts such as electrical conduction, corrosion, convection, and thermal radiation have hindered traditional approaches in their attempts to accurately quantify these properties at high temperatures. Here, a needle probe is developed, which modifies …

Long-Term Persistence Of Desert Rodent Species In A Great Basin Sagebrush Community: Potential Effects Of Fire, Invasive Annuals, And Warming Temperatures, Lindsay A. Dimitri, William S. Longland

Western North American Naturalist

To test long-term stability of a desert rodent community and potential impacts of wildfire on the community’s stability, we live-trapped desert rodents from 2019 to 2021 at a site in western Nevada where we had previously trapped from 1989 to 1993. Trapping occurred in unburned sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) and in adjacent burned habitat where sagebrush cover was removed by a fire in 1985. We also used online data to test for trends in estimated cover of annual and perennial vegetation and in ambient temperatures and precipitation over the >30-year period spanned by the trapping data. White-tailed antelope squirrels …

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Archaic Vocabulary Of The Book Of Mormon, Royal Skousen

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

In my work as editor of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project (which began in 1988), I was initially interested in discovering the original English-language text of the book. But I soon came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to fully recover the original text by scholarly means, in large part because only 28 percent of the original manuscript is extant. In addition, there are obvious errors in the original manuscript itself that require conjectural emendation. As I have worked on the text of the Book of Mormon, I have come to some surprising conclusions regarding the …

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Byu Anthropologist Addresses Maya Origins Puzzle

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

In 2001 the chance discovery of a 2,000-year-old Maya mural in a chamber buried beneath a pyramid in the Guatemalan jungle stirred the archaeological community. It was a sensational find, one of the most important for Mayanists in half a century. Rendered in brilliant colors with exquisite skill, the remarkably well-preserved mural reveals a highly sophisticated artistic tradition and hieroglyphic script predating the Maya’s golden age by 800 years.

“What Meaneth The Rod Of Iron”?, Matthew L. Bowen

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Latter-day Saint scholars Hugh W. Nibley and John A. Tvedtnes have discussed at length how a staff, rod, and sword came to be commonly identified with the word of God in the ancient Near East.¹The evidence they cite from the Bible, the earliest Hebrew commentators, modern biblical scholarship, and elsewhere affirms Nephi’s unambiguous assertion that the “word of God” is a “rod.”

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Scrolls Database Released

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The Maxwell Institute is pleased to announce The Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library Revised Edition 2006, published in cooperation with Brill Academic Publishers. Updated under the editorship of Emanuel Tov, who leads an international team of Dead Sea Scrolls editors, the searchable electronic database boasts exciting new features.

Institute Contributes To Exhibit

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

“Beholding Salvation: Images of Christ,” a new exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art, displays 170 works depicting the ministry of Jesus Christ. The paintings, sculptures, icons, and illuminated manuscripts represent half a millennium of religious art. Not part of the exhibit but prepared especially for it is a book authored by FARMS director S. Kent Brown in collaboration with Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Dawn C. Pheysey.

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Farms Unveils New Web Site

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

In December 2005 FARMS released a new version of its Web site. In response to feedback from people who have used the site over the last several years, the new FARMS site boasts additional content and enhanced features.

Reliability Study Of A New Electromechanical Device Designed To Measure The Relative Dorsal Mobility Of The First Ray Of The Foot, Philippe Passeraub

Faculty Publications

Introduction: A new electromechanical instrument has been developed to measure relative dorsal mobility of the first ray in an objective and reliable way by simulating ground reaction forces during gait. This device equally applies a standardized, electronically controlled, and precise force under the first metatarsal head M1 as well as under the heads of the lesser metatarsals M2 to M5. The relative dorsal mobility between these two bearings is then measured. The purpose of this study is to assess the intra- and inter-examiners reliabilities of the measurements obtained with this device. Methods: The protocol included two examiners and 36 feet …

Stemficohort1preinterviewdata, Rebecca L. Sansom, Bryn Stclair, Jamie Jensen, Richard West

ScholarsArchive Data

The science, technology, engineering, and mathematics faculty institute (STEMFI) is a National Science Foundation funded project designed to provide support, measurement, and training to BYU faculty developing their own student-centered curriculum.

This PDF file contains pre-institute participation interview data from the first cohort of faculty involved in the STEM faculty institute (2018).

Reliable Mode Tracking For Gradient-Based Optimization With Dynamic Stability Constraints, Taylor Mcdonnell, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

In order to construct mode-specific flutter constraints for use in gradient-based multidisciplinary design optimization frameworks, mode tracking must be used to associate the current iteration's modes with the modes corresponding to each constraint function. Existing mode tracking methods, however, do not provide a method by which to ensure the accuracy of mode associations, making them unsuitable for use in situations where obtaining correct mode associations is critical. To remedy this issue, a new mode tracking method is presented which incorporates backtracking logic in order to maintain an arbitrarily high degree of confidence in mode correlations during gradient-based optimization and/or during …

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Research At The Shrine Of The Book Continues

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Irene Lewitt, assistant director of the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, visited Brigham Young University on June 20, 2007. Donald W. Parry, professor of Hebrew Bible studies, and Steven Booras from the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, hosted Ms. Lewitt during her visit. A portion of her tour included a demonstration of multispectral imaging. A luncheon sponsored by the Maxwell Institute was also held in her honor. The Shrine of the Book is a museum that houses many of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the Great Isaiah Scroll and the Temple Scroll, and other significant archaeological findings. …

Worth Repeating: “The Book Of Mormon As A Mesoamerican Record”, John L. Sorenson

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The Nephite account is a record that resembles in form, nature, and functions—in scores of characteristics, in fact—what we would expect in an ancient Mesoamerican codex, a type of document that was utterly unknown to Joseph Smith.

Peterson Awarded For Scholastic Excellence

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters held its annual awards banquet on Friday, October 12, at Weber State University. The academy awarded Daniel C. Peterson, professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic at Brigham Young University and director of the Maxwell Institute’s Middle Eastern Texts Initiative (METI), the highest award of the evening, naming him a Utah Academy Fellow and lifetime member of the organization.

New Documentary Focuses On New World

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Journey of Faith: The New World premiered to large audiences at BYU Education Week in a sneak preview. S. Kent Brown, director of the newly formed Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies and one of the lead historical consultants on the documentary, and Peter N. Johnson, director, hosted the premier. A number of people returned for a second viewing because of the sweep of information in the film. “Packing a long history into 80 or 90 minutes of film presented a huge challenge to the filmmakers,” Johnson said. The new film enjoys the sponsorship of the Neal …

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

No abstract provided.