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In this paper, a review of materials selection methods is presented. It initially discusses the importance of materials selection in various fields of scientific study particularly in engineering design. Various tools and methods for the selection of materials are reviewed. These include materials handbook, materials data‐bases, materials selection charts, artificial intelligence systems, and other computeraided materials selection systems.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a perspective of computer‐aided material and process selection (MPS) software tools for product development purpose and present a practical approach for manufacturers and other decision makers involved in MPS.

A multi‐criteria deductive approach for MPS is applied to a case study by taking into account the technical performances and environmental constraints. A resource‐based cost modeling is also deployed to examine the implication of selected material and process on overall product cost.

The paper demonstrates the capabilities and shortcoming of existing computerized MPS software tools in assisting product managers and designers for handling the growing volume of material/process data.

Applying computer‐aided MPS approach to complex shape products with multiple features is not a straightforward task and requires further development in existing MPS software tools.

Computer‐aided MPS systems can assist decision makers in solving many material/process selection problems by following a systematic process.

Given today's rapid technological changes, it is important for decision makers to understand the capabilities of computer‐aided MPS software tools in handling a growing volume of data. Very limited research has been done to explore the capabilities and limitations of existing material/process selectors. It is the first in the literature that demonstrates the application of multi‐criteria deductive approach in MPS using a software tool.

Selection of sustainable building materials represents an important strategy in the design and construction of a building. A principal challenge therefore is the identification of assessment criteria based on the concepts and principles of sustainability, and the process of prioritizing and aggregating relevant criteria into an assessment framework. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to fill these gaps by describing the development stages of key assessment criteria used within an assessment tool under development for sustainable building material selection in the UK building industry.

After conducting a thorough and systematic literature review, a total of 24 sustainable assessment criteria (SAC) based on the triple bottom line and the need of building stakeholders were identified. A survey of UK architects and designers was conducted to capture their perceptions on the importance of the criteria. A total of 490 questionnaires were mailed out to participants for completion. An initial and follow‐up administration of the postal survey generated an overall response rate of 20.2 per cent. Factor analysis was utilized to group the criteria into assessment factors for modelling sustainability of building materials.

The result revealed that all criteria were considered important, with “aesthetics”, “maintainability” and “energy saving” the three top criteria considered for building materials selection. Factor analysis shows that these SACs can be aggregated into six factors namely: “environmental impacts”, “resource efficiency”, “waste minimization”, “life cycle cost”, “socio benefit”, and “performance capability”. Since these criteria were derived from the survey through expert opinion, consideration of these six criteria in material selection will ensure sustainability of building projects.

The sampling method does not include other stakeholders, who in a way influence material selection, such as the client. The sample size may need to be extended to include more stakeholders involved in material selection in order to minimize sampling error. However, the importance of the study remains, for the limitations do not detract from them, but merely provide scope for further research.

The current study contributes to the building industry and sustainability research in at least two aspects. First it widens the understanding of selection criteria as well as their degree of importance. It also provides building stakeholders a new way to select materials, thereby facilitating the sustainability of building projects.

Urbanization and globalization in India have led to the depletion of resources and degradation of the environment to meet the demands. Because of these issues, researchers and practitioners have begun to study various strategies to reduce the level consumption of resources to utilize it for present and future needs. In pursuit of finding solutions to the problems, sustainable building construction is found as the best key to avoid depletion of resources. Sustainable material selection is found as a vital strategy in construction. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

A three-phase methodology is proposed for framing the assessment model for construction industries to select materials for construction. In the first phase, a total of 23 sub-criteria of triple bottom line (TBL) and four brick materials as alternatives were identified. The second phase finds the weights and ranks of criteria and sub-criteria using the best worst methodology (BWM) the third phase involves ranking of materials concerning sub-criteria weights determined in phase II using Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS).

The objective of study is fixed to identify the criteria list for the selection of material in construction industries from the literature review especially for Indian construction industries; to rank the criteria for selection of materials with the help of the BWM approach; and to prioritize the identified materials in the view of sustainability with the help of Fuzzy TOPSIS in construction industries perspective. This study analyzed and choosing right sustainable materials by the three pillars of sustainability which are the environment, economic and social, also called TBL, for Indian construction companies by framing a sustainable material assessment model.

The results of this study facilitate to frame an assessment model for evaluating and selecting sustainable building materials.

It is likely that under modern-day conditions, design, designer and materials selection would follow a parallel continuum in a cycle. The attitude in materials selection confronts us as one of the substantial values directing the design. Therefore, it should be approached in certain criteria.

Today, designers have to put emphasis on not only the setting and style of the space they are designing, but also on the relationship between the materials used and the environment at the same time. In our day, designers have an intense awareness on the use of renewable resources. Hence, it is obvious that a special importance should be given to the fact that the materials are in a cycle of sustainable and recycled.

In this study, 15 design offices are asked the question of “what are the factors affecting your materials decisions and what are your selection criteria in general?” by using the interview technique. As a result of interviews conducted with design offices regarding their materials selection, many criteria are identified. It is seen that although sustainability is not clearly stated by designers among these criteria, it actively takes part in the content. In the light of answers provided and interviews, the relationship between materials selection criteria and sustainability will be examined over the standpoints of 12 offices that particularly mentioned the area of sustainability.

Material selection, driven by wide and often conflicting objectives, is an important, sometimes difficult problem in material engineering. In this context, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methodologies are effective. An approach of MCDM is needed to cater to criteria of material assortment simultaneously. More firms are now concerned about increasing their productivity using mathematical tools. To occupy a gap in the previous literature this research recommends an integrated MCDM and mathematical Bi-objective model for the selection of material. In addition, by using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), the inherent ambiguities of decision-makers in paired evaluations are considered in this research. It goes on to construct a mathematical bi-objective model for determining the best item to purchase.

The entropy perspective is implemented in this paper to evaluate the weight parameters, while the TOPSIS technique is used to determine the best and worst intermediate pipe materials for automotive exhaust system. The intermediate pipes are used to join the components of the exhaust systems. The materials usually used to manufacture intermediate pipe are SUS 436LM, SUS 430, SUS 304, SUS 436L, SUH 409 L, SUS 441 L and SUS 439L. These seven materials are evaluated based on tensile strength (TS), hardness (H), elongation (E), yield strength (YS) and cost (C). A hybrid methodology combining entropy-based criteria weighting, with the TOPSIS for alternative ranking, is pursued to identify the optimal design material for an engineered application in this paper. This study aims to help while filling the information gap in selecting the most suitable material for use in the exhaust intermediate pipes. After that, the authors searched for and considered eight materials and evaluated them on the following five criteria: (1) TS, (2) YS, (3) H, (4) E and (5) C. The first two criteria have been chosen because they can have a lot of influence on the behavior of the exhaust intermediate pipes, on their performance and on the cost. In this structure, the weights of the criteria are calculated objectively through the entropy method in order to have an unbiased assessment. This essentially measures the quantity of information each criterion contribution, indicating the relative importance of these criteria better. Subsequently, the materials were ranked using the TOPSIS method in terms of their relative performance by measuring each material from an ideal solution to determine the best alternative. The results show that SUS 309, SUS 432L and SUS 436 LM are the first three materials that the exhaust intermediate pipe optimal design should consider.

The material matrix of the decision presented in Table 3 was normalized through Equation 5, as shown in Table 5, and the matrix was multiplied with weighting criteria ß_j. The obtained weighted normalized matrix V_ij is presented in Table 6. However, the ideal, worst and best value was ascertained by employing Equation 7. This study is based on the selection of material for the development of intermediate pipe using MCDM, and it involves four basic stages, i.e. method of translation criteria, screening process, method of ranking and search for methods. The selection was done through the TOPSIS method, and the criteria weight was obtained by the entropy method. The result showed that the top three materials are SUS 309, SUS 432L and SUS 436 LM, respectively. For the future work, it is suggested to select more alternatives and criteria. The comparison can also be done by using different MCDM techniques like and Choice Expressing Reality (ELECTRE), Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE).

The results provide important conclusions for material selection in this targeted application, verifying the employment of mutual entropy-TOPSIS methodology for a series of difficult engineering decisions in material engineering concepts that combine superior capacity with better performance as well as cost-efficiency in various engineering design.

Policies and procedures designed to meet selection of and challenges to instructional materials are in existence in many school districts. Often, however, these policies fail to outline clear procedures for evaluation and review of the selection process itself through involvement of teachers, students, librarians, administrators, and parents. As professionals intimately involved with the selection and utilization of instructional materials, librarians have a professional responsibility to assist in the development of a policy which is: 1. promoted for the awareness and education of all parties involved; 2. utilized with the intent for all interested parties to have the opportunity to provide constructive input; 3. practiced so that procedures can be documented and therefore understood and supported by the governing powers of the school system.

This study aims to analyse how the materials selection courses of engineering undergraduate programmes can be better aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Initially, a content analysis was performed in 39 materials selection course descriptions from 40 engineering undergraduate programmes of Brazilian higher education institutions, and subsequently, Delphi method procedures were conducted with professors that teach or have taught the course and are knowledgeable in the subject of sustainability.

Considering the analysed course descriptions, it was shown that most of the materials selection courses do not consider or present little emphasis on sustainability aspects. Regarding the Delphi method, eight items were evidenced to consider sustainability aspects in the analysed courses.

This study contributes to the debates about sustainability insertion in engineering undergraduate programmes. More specifically, the findings presented consolidated information that professors and coordinators can use to align materials selection courses with the SDGs better.

A key task in the material handling system design process is the selection and configuration of equipment for material transport and storage in a facility. Material handling equipment selection is a complex, tedious task. However, there are few tools other than checklists to assist engineers in the selection of appropriate, cost‐effective material handling equipment. This paper describes the development of an intelligent material handling equipment selection system called MHESA (Material Handling Equipment Selection Advisor). The MHESA is composed of three modules: a database to store equipment types with their specifications; a knowledge‐based expert system for assisting material handling equipment selection; and an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model to choose the most favorable equipment type. The concept proposed in this paper can automate the design of material handling equipment selection system, and provides artificial intelligence in the decision‐making process.

In most developing countries riveting, upset forging and punching operations among others are performed using manual hammering technique. The use of the manual method increases production time and reduces efficiency. The use of the manual approach is predominantly due to the high cost of imported automated hammering machines (AHM) which the majority of the end-users are incapable of acquiring. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to produce an AHM that is affordable using an effective material selection methodology in the design and fabrication process.

The material selection methodology proposed is the fuzzy multi-objective optimisation on the basis of the ratio analysis (MOORA) method. The tool was used to evaluate and determine the optimum material for the major of the components of the AHM from amongst alternative materials while considering several decision criteria. A case study of the shaft was applied to demonstrate the suitability of the proposed technique. The AHM components design is then carried out and machine fabricated and tested to ascertain performance effectiveness.

The result of the fuzzy MOORA evaluation showed that alloy steel is the optimal material for the shaft. The fuzzy MOORA approach was compared with the fuzzy Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacija Ikompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) and fuzzy grey relational analysis (GRA) methods to validate the proposed method. The fuzzy MOORA method produces completely the same result with the fuzzy VIKOR and fuzzy GRA methods. The machine was then designed, constructed and tested and found to be effective for the purpose of the design.

This is significant as no such study has been published by any other researcher to the best of our knowledge in this area.