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Gradient structures exist ubiquitously in nature and are increasingly being introduced in engineering. However, understanding structural gradient–related mechanical behaviors in all gradient structures, including those in engineering materials, has been challenging. We explored the mechanical performance of a gradient nanotwinned structure with highly tunable structural gradients in pure copper. A large structural gradient allows for superior work hardening and strength that can exceed those of the strongest component of the gradient structure. We found through systematic experiments and atomistic simulations that this unusual behavior is afforded by a unique patterning of ultrahigh densities of dislocations in the grain interiors. These observations not only shed light on gradient structures, but may also indicate a promising route for improving the mechanical properties of materials through gradient design.

A high density of growth twins in pure Cu imparts high yield strength while preserving the capacity for efficient dislocation storage, leading to high strain hardening rates at high flow stresses, especially at 77K. Uniform tensile deformation is stabilized to large plastic strains, resulting in an ultrahigh tensile strength of ∼1GPa together with an elongation to failure of ∼30%.

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This paper describes the data release of the LAMOST pilot survey, which includes data reduction, calibration, spectral analysis, data products and data access. The accuracy of the released data and the information about the FITS headers of spectra are also introduced. The released data set includes 319 000 spectra and a catalog of these objects.

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As the size of wind turbines increases, the effects of dynamic loading on the turbine structures become increasingly significant. There is therefore a growing demand for turbine control systems to alleviate these unsteady structural loads in addition to maintaining basic requirements such as power and speed regulation. This has motivated the development of blade individual pitch control (IPC) methodologies, many of which employ the Coleman transformation to simplify the controller design process. However, and as is shown in this paper, the Coleman transformation significantly alters the rotational system dynamics when these are referred to the non-rotating frame of reference, introducing tilt-yaw coupling in the process. Unless this transformation is explicitly included in the model employed for IPC design, then the resulting controllers can yield poor performance. Therefore, in this paper, we show how to model the Coleman transformation in a form that is amenable to IPC analysis and synthesis. This enables us to explain why traditional design parameters of gain and phase margin are poor indicators of robust stability and hence motivate the need for a multivariable design approach. The robust multivariable IPC approach advocated in this paper is based upon H 1 loop shaping and has numerous desirable properties, including reliable stability margins, improved tilt-yaw decoupling and simultaneous rejection of disturbance loads over a range of frequencies. The design of a robust multivariable IPC is discussed, and simulation results are presented that demonstrate the efficacy of this controller, in terms of load reduction on both rotating and non-rotating turbine parts.

Nearly 90 per cent of service failures of metallic components and structures are caused by fatigue at cyclic stress amplitudes much lower than the tensile strength of the materials involved. Metals typically suffer from large amounts of cumulative, irreversible damage to microstructure during cyclic deformation, leading to cyclic responses that are unstable (hardening or softening) and history-dependent. Existing rules for fatigue life prediction, such as the linear cumulative damage rule, cannot account for the effect of loading history, and engineering components are often loaded by complex cyclic stresses with variable amplitudes, mean values and frequencies, such as aircraft wings in turbulent air. It is therefore usually extremely challenging to predict cyclic behaviour and fatigue life under a realistic load spectrum. Here, through both atomistic simulations and variable-strain-amplitude cyclic loading experiments at stress amplitudes lower than the tensile strength of the metal, we report a history-independent and stable cyclic response in bulk copper samples that contain highly oriented nanoscale twins. We demonstrate that this unusual cyclic behaviour is governed by a type of correlated 'necklace' dislocation consisting of multiple short component dislocations in adjacent twins, connected like the links of a necklace. Such dislocations are formed in the highly oriented nanotwinned structure under cyclic loading and help to maintain the stability of twin boundaries and the reversible damage, provided that the nanotwins are tilted within about 15 degrees of the loading axis. This cyclic deformation mechanism is distinct from the conventional strain localizing mechanisms associated with irreversible microstructural damage in single-crystal, coarse-grained, ultrafine-grained and nanograined metals.