Materials Selection Using a 2-tuple Linguistic Multi-criteria Method

The materials selection can affect the design component radically, with effect on the manufacturing systems efficiency, environmental impact issues, and customer satisfaction. There are different methods employed for materials selection; however, two steps are usual for most of these methods: screening and ranking. The ranking step identifies among materials candidates those that can perform the function the best as possible. Multi-criteria methods have been widely employed to materials selection, especially in the ranking step. Most of these methods take advantage of fuzzy numbers and linguistic variables to process qualitative information and information with uncertainties. One of the approaches that have been developed to solve issues related to make decisions in multi-criteria methods using linguistic information is the 2-tuple linguistic computational model. The main advantage of this approach is taking the “loss of information” away, which provides a higher precision on results. This paper aims to present a multi-criteria method for materials selection ranking step based on 2-tuple linguistic variables. The steps and several equations needed to apply the proposed method are described. Two case studies are presented and compare results with other methods to demonstrate the proposed method potential.材料选择会对设计构件产生根本性影响，进而波及制造系统效率、环境影响问题与客户满意度。当前用于材料选择的方法种类繁多，但多数方法通常包含两个核心步骤：筛选与排序。其中排序步骤会从候选材料中筛选出最能适配目标功能的材料。多准则决策方法（Multi-criteria methods）已被广泛应用于材料选择任务，尤其在排序环节。此类方法大多借助模糊数（fuzzy numbers）与语言变量（linguistic variables）处理定性信息及不确定性信息。针对基于语言信息的多准则决策问题，学界已开发出多种解决方案，其中二元组语言计算模型（2-tuple linguistic computational model）便是其一。该模型的核心优势在于消除了"信息损失"问题，可显著提升结果的计算精度。本文旨在提出一种基于二元组语言变量的材料选择排序步骤多准则决策方法，并详述了该方法的实施步骤与所需的若干公式。本文通过两个案例研究，将所提方法的结果与其他同类方法进行对比，以验证其应用潜力。