Modified Fuzzy Logic Method for Materials Selection in Mechanical Engineering Design

Abstract

Materials selection is one of the primary steps in designing products, including mechanical ones. As a result, researchers are continuously developing simple, accurate, and feasible techniques to enhance the performance of the designed component by selecting the optimum materials from a wide variety of candidate materials. In this research work, a modified fuzzy approach referred to as Modified Fuzzy Logic Method (MFLM) is proposed to provide some highly appreciated advantages besides resolving some of the substantial shortcomings of the existing solutions. Customizing the method based on the designer’s knowledge and level of expertise, simultaneous consideration of qualitative and quantitative properties, and high accuracy in the ranking of candidate materials are some of the significant benefits of MFLM in comparison to the available alternative methods. While, complexity, high volume computational efforts, and more are amongst the resolved drawbacks. Moreover, the produced results show the power and simplicity of the technique in solving complex problems like materials selection for a gas turbine blade which involves a high range working temperature.