Material Selection Method Research Articles

STS Forebody Material Selection Method Using Integrated Aerothermodynamic Optimization Approach

Ceramic matrix composites have been recommended for space applications. Accordingly, in this paper, a material selection method for the forebody of a space transportation system is demonstrated. The methodology is based on mass-model coupled aerothermodynamic design of a highly-integrated forebody-inlet system that uses the multidisciplinary optimization capability of the TIPSO (Two-steps Improved PSO) algorithm. The design optimization and hence material parameters are evolved using the newly developed SHWAMIDOF-FI tool. This paper focuses on validating the selection of carbon composite material by optimizing the configuration parameters for integrating a cone-derived forebody into planar wedge surfaces and an inlet-isolator assembly, so as to form a mixed internal-external compression system. Surface temperature, thermal conductivity, tensile strength and emissivity are used as primary parameters for selection of a forebody material. The optimization results validate that a carbon fibre reinforced carbon and silicon carbide (C/C-SiC) dual matrix composite is best suited for the application

Application of multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis (MOORA) method for materials selection

The role that materials play in the design and proper functioning of the products has already been well acknowledged. An incorrectly selected material for a given product may cause premature failure of the final product. The right choice of the available material is critical to the success and competitiveness of the manufacturing organization. The earlier researchers have attempted to solve the material selection problems employing various mathematical tools and techniques. But it is interesting to note that almost all those techniques are affected by the weights assigned to the considered selection criteria and also by the normalization procedure adopted to make the elements of the decision matrix comparable. Hence, there is an ardent need for a material selection method that would remain unaffected by the criteria weights and normalization procedure. In this paper, multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis (MOORA) method is applied to solve some of the common material selection problems. The performance of the reference point approach and full multiplicative MOORA method are also tested for the considered problems. It is observed that all these three methods are very simple to understand, easy to implement and provide almost exact rankings to the material alternatives.

Digital logic and knowledge-based system for the automotive piston material selection

The aim of this paper is to apply material selection methods for selecting the most appropriate material for piston application. Initial candidate materials such as, grey cast iron, Ti and Al alloys, 20% SiC reinforced Al and Al-Cu alloy matrix composites and WC-TiC reinforced Ti matrix composite were analysed based on their performance requirements. Digital logic (DL) approach was implemented for material selection and knowledge-based system (KBS) was used for comparison purposes. In DL method, performance index (PI) was measured using the scaled property and weighting factor. The figure of merit was obtained based on PI and relative cost of each candidate material. In KBS, a MATLAB network tool was employed for comparison purposes. The highest PI was found for 20% SiC reinforced Al-Cu alloy composite compared to other materials and hence can be selected for the new generation automotive piston application.

Materials selection for electronic enclosures in space environment considering electromagnetic interference effect

Using low power electronic devices for space applications to reduce the mass and energy consumption has lead to electromagnetic interference (EMI) problem. Electronic enclosures are used to shield electronic devices against EMI. In the past, electromagnetic shielding has been mainly the only criteria considered in electronic enclosure design. However, there are several structural and thermal requirements for selection of shielding materials which should also be taken into account. In this research work, three quantitative materials selection methods, i.e. Digital Logic (DL), Modified Digital Logic (MDL), and Z-transformation, are employed to select the best material from among a list of candidate materials. Composite and metallic electronic enclosures are explored and the best material is selected. Z-transformation method is applicable to both of the considered case studies while DL and MDL can only be used for solving one of them. Z-transformation method ranks aluminum as the first choice among various metallic materials. The wide range of Z-transformation application and its practical results confirm the superiority of Z-transformation method over DL and MDL methods.

Analysis and realization of magnetic switch in pulsed power conditioning system

When two-electrode spark gap switches are applied to main discharging circuit of pulsed power conditioning system, trigger generators will be needed. To guarantee triggering reliability and protect other key components in the pulsed power conditioning system, such as pre-ionization branch and xenon lamp, magnetic switch is needed to insulate the high triggering voltage in the main discharging circuit. In this paper, starting from the analysis of the working principle of the discharging circuit, we present the solution of Fe-based nanocrystalline alloy switch. Specifically, we provide the basis of theoretical calculation and the method of material selection for the design and realization of this magnetic switch. Via the performance tests in pulsed power conditioning system, the validity of material selection and parameter design is proved. This paper provides a reference for the engineering design and application of magnetic switches in huge pulsed power systems.

Invigorating Industrial Design Materials and Manufacturing Education

Materials and manufacturing are vitally important subjects for industrial designers, being the means by which virtual products are turned to physical reality. Historically materials and manufacturing education has been dominated by engineering approaches, which often are too technical and poorly suited to the human-centred concerns of industrial designers. For example, materials selection for product function/performance is well established, but selection for product expression/personality is underdeveloped. Recently a body of new research has emerged taking a humanistic perspective to the selection of materials for industrially manufactured products. The common point is to articulate ways in which designers can use materials to affect people’s experiences of products on aesthetic, meaning and emotional levels, within a wider context of product differentiation, branding, and other commercial imperatives. Accompanying this new body of research is a need to examine implications for industrial design materials and manufacturing education. This article presents a case for pedagogical change, to achieve better alignment with current and future practices of industry. Research data were derived from literature reviews, analysis of interview data with designers, and a case study to develop and evaluate materials and manufacturing training on the undergraduate industrial design programme at Middle East Technical University, Turkey. Four educational initiatives are proposed to invigorate industrial design materials and manufacturing education: (i) echo professional practices regarding the range of subjects taught and the contexts for decision-making; (ii) develop understanding of materials experience, focusing especially on sensorial and intangible qualities of materials and embracing technical and non-technical languages to teach material properties; (iii) use material and product samples as teaching resources and consider adopting ‘learning through making’ strategies; and (iv) instil systematic material selection methods for both utilitarian and expressive uses of materials. INVIGORATING INDUSTRIAL DESIGN MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING EDUCATION

Integrated shape and material selection for single and multi-performance criteria

A shape and material selection method, based on the concept of shape transformers, has been recently introduced to characterize the mass efficiency of lightweight beams under bending and shear. This paper extends this method to deal with the case of torsional stiffness design, and generalize it to single and multi-crieria selection of lightweight shafts subjected to a combination of bending, shear, and torsional load. The novel feature of the paper is the useful integration of shape and material to model and visualize multi-objective selection problems. The scheme is centered on concept selection in structural design, and hinges on measures that govern the shape properties of a cross-section regardless of its size. These measures, referred as shape transformers, can classify shapes in a way similar to material classification. The procedure is exemplified by considering torsional stiffness as a constraint. The performance charts are developed for single and multi-criteria to visualize in a glance the whole range of cross-sectional shapes for each material. Each design chart is explained with a brief example.

From prescription to performance: international trends on concrete specifications and the Brazilian perspective

There are two types of specifications: prescriptive and performance based. The prescriptive specifications focus on materials properties, materials proportions, mixing and transporting procedures and on a variety of processes, such as placing and curing. In these specifications, the concrete desired performance it is not necessarily described. On the other hand, performance specifications stipulate what is required from the product and do not prescribe how the product should be produced. In other words, they focus on the desired performance rather than on the concrete ingredients, materials selection, proportioning or construction methods. These are the responsibility of those individuals who contractually have to comply with the specifications. In this case, con- crete is defined in terms of measurable fresh and hardened properties and durability and as there are no restrictions regarding materials and their proportions in the performance specifications, innovative solutions may be used in order to achieve the performance requirements. Currently, most concrete specifications are predominantly prescriptive with some performance requirements. Nevertheless, there is a consensus that in order to extend the service life of concrete structures, this has to be changed. This paper gives an overview of the international specifica- tions and describes the international efforts on the performance specification implementation in the concrete industry.

A comprehensive VIKOR method for material selection

In engineering design, material alternatives evaluate according to different criteria depending on the objectives of the problem. Performance ratings for different criteria are measured by different units, but in the decision matrix in order to have a valid comparison all the elements must be dimensionless. However, a lot of normalization methods have been developed for cost and benefit criteria, not only there has not been enough attention for engineering design situations in which approaching the target values are desirable but also the available methods have shortcomings. A new version of VIKOR method, which covers all types of criteria with emphasize on compromise solution, is proposed in this paper. The proposed comprehensive version of VIKOR also overcomes the main error of traditional VIKOR by a simpler approach. Suggested method can enhance exactness of material selection results in different applications, especially in biomedical application where the implant materials should possess similar properties to those of human tissues. Five examples are included to illustrate and justify the suggested method.

A Schematic Method for Sustainable Material Selection of Toxic Chemicals in Design and Manufacturing

Toxic chemicals used in product design and manufacturing are grave concerns due to their toxic impact on human health. Implementing sustainable material selection strategies on toxic chemicals can substantially improve the sustainability of products in both design and manufacturing processes. In this paper, a schematic method is presented for characterizing and benchmarking the human health impact of toxic chemicals, as a visual aid to facilitate decision-making in the material selection process for sustainable design and manufacturing. In this schematic method, the human health impact of a toxic chemical is characterized by two critical parameters: daily exposure risk R and environmental persistence T. The human health impact of a toxic chemical is represented by its position in the R−T two-dimensional plot, which enables the screening and benchmarking of toxic chemicals to be easily made through comparing their relative positions in the characterization plot. A case study is performed on six toxic chemicals commonly used as solvents for cleaning and degreasing in product development and manufacturing.

Modulator design for x‐ray scatter correction using primary modulation: Material selection

An optimal material selection for primary modulator is proposed in order to minimize beam hardening of the modulator in x-ray cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Recently, a measurement-based scatter correction method using primary modulation has been developed and experimentally verified. In the practical implementation, beam hardening of the modulator blocker is a limiting factor because it causes inconsistency in the primary signal and therefore degrades the accuracy of scatter correction. This inconsistency can be purposely assigned to the effective transmission factor of the modulator whose variation as a function of object filtration represents the magnitude of beam hardening of the modulator. In this work, the authors show that the variation reaches a minimum when the K-edge of the modulator material is near the mean energy of the system spectrum. Accordingly, an optimal material selection can be carried out in three steps. First, estimate and evaluate the polychromatic spectrum for a given x-ray system including both source and detector; second, calculate the mean energy of the spectrum and decide the candidate materials whose K-edge energies are near the mean energy; third, select the optimal material from the candidates after considering both the magnitude of beam hardening and the physical and chemical properties. A tabletop x-ray CBCT system operated at 120 kVp is used to validate the material selection method in both simulations and experiments, from which the optimal material for this x-ray system is then chosen. With the transmission factor initially being 0.905 and 0.818, simulations show that erbium provides the least amount of variation as a function of object filtrations (maximum variations are 2.2% and 4.3%, respectively, only one-third of that for copper). With different combinations of aluminum and copper filtrations (simulating a range of object thicknesses), measured overall variations are 2.5%, 1.0%, and 8.6% for 25.4 microm of copper, erbium, and tungsten, respectively. With and without 300 microm of copper in the beam, the measured variations for 25.4 microm of copper, erbium, and tungsten, 1 mm of aluminum, as well as 406 microm of copper, are 1.8%, 0.2%, 5.5%, 1.9%, and 7.5%, respectively. The spatial variation in the effective transmission factor of the modulator blocker due to beam hardening caused by the modulator itself reaches a minimum when the K-edge of the modulator material is near the mean energy of the spectrum. An optimal modulator material selection using the K-edge discontinuity is therefore proposed.

A subjective and objective integrated multiple attribute decision making method for material selection

The selection of an optimal material for an engineering design from among two or more alternative materials on the basis of two or more attributes is a multiple attribute decision making (MADM) problem. The selection decisions are complex, as material selection is more challenging today. There is a need for simple, systematic, and logical methods or mathematical tools to guide decision makers in considering a number of selection attributes and their interrelations and in making right decisions. This paper proposes a novel MADM method for material selection for a considered design problem. The method considers the objective weights of importance of the attributes as well as the subjective preferences of the decision maker to decide the integrated weights of importance of the attributes. Furthermore, the method uses fuzzy logic to convert the qualitative attributes into the quantitative attributes. Three examples are presented to illustrate the potential of the proposed method.

Selection of raw materials in textile spinning industry using fuzzy multi-criteria decision making approach

Selection of raw materials in textile spinning industry is a multi-criteria decision making problem. It is a decision of strategic importance as textile is a typical high volume but low profit industry. The nature of raw material selection decision, in most of the cases, is very crude and unstructured. Therefore, advanced decision science techniques might be useful for solving such kind of intricate problems. The inability of common decision making methods to handle imprecision and uncertainty, make them inapt in situations which involves fuzzy information. However, fuzzy decision making techniques can elicit reasonable and logical solutions in these situations. This paper presents the use of fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to select the raw materials (cotton fibres) for the textile spinning industries. The results indicate that the fuzzy AHP can quantitatively translate the imprecise perception of the decision maker and yield better results than some of the traditional raw material selection methods used in the textile industry.

A Method for Materials Selection in Reliability-Based Design Diagram of Structural Components under Creep-Fatigue Damage Mode

A new method for materials selection in reliability-based design was applied to the high temperature structural components under creep-fatigue damage mode. The creep-fatigue interaction law was formulated in terms of creep time fraction (creep damage) and fatigue cycle fraction (fatigue damage) using pure creep and pure fatigue material properties referring NIMS creep and fatigue datasheets for ferritic heat resistant steels such as 1Cr-1Mo-0.25V steel forging, 12Cr-1Mo-1W-0.3V steel bar and 2.25Cr-1Mo steel plate. The statistical distribution under the creep-fatigue damage mode was fitted well with the two-dimensional log-normal distribution function but the scatter bands of creep-fatigue data were considerably larger compared with the cases using pure creep and pure fatigue damage distributions. Once the ratio of creep damage to fatigue damage was fixed, the confidence limit could be restricted within more reasonable range for design application. The diagram was expressed by the relationship between creep stress vs. fatigue strain range for those three materials and the apparent superiority of 12Cr-1Mo-1W-0.3V steel bar to other materials was demonstrated. Thus this diagram was proved to be an effective tool for decision making of materials selection and structural reliability-based design even at the very initial stage of design process, that is, the front-loading design of components.

Attempt to adapt a statistical model for the heterosis effect in maize F1 hybrids depending on the genetic distance of parental forms

During the recent years traditional tillage techniques and procedures have been successfully used in combination with the modern molecular technologies. This enables the researchers not only to employ more objective methods of parental material selection, but also shortens the time required to breed a new variant. Many researchers tried to surmise the heterosis effect by examining the genetic distance between two parental lines. The main objective of this work was to display the correlation between the heterosis effect among the F1 generation of maize and the genetic distance between the parental components. Furthermore, an attempt was made to predict the future heterosis effect using mathematical functions. Finding a proof of those correlations would make it possible to select the parental material, used to create a new variation, more effectively and thus to reduce the number of lines tested during the experiment. Hence it would reduce the time needed for the experiments and also significantly reduce the overall cost of the research project. The research displayed that the molecular markers AFLP and RAPD are useful for predicting the formula of a new corn hybrid . They can be also used to group lines according to their origin or parentage, including those having incomplete information about their parentage. For both markers: RAPD and AFLP, the functions that best describe the correlation between the heterosis effect and the genetic distance, were: a third degree polynomial y=a+bx+cx2+dx3 and a linear function y = a + bx...

Materials selection for applications in space environment considering outgassing phenomenon

Application of the existing materials selection methods is not much popular in space environment. This is in spite of involvement of the selection process in this field with a wide range of influential factors (e.g. conventional mechanical properties and over 21 space environmental effects). In this paper an introductory road map for employing systematic materials selection methods in the field by engaging the selection process with mechanical properties and only one of the space environmental factors is presented. Here, selected case studies, which are involved with outgassing phenomenon of materials in vacuum condition, highlight the incapability of some of the methods in dealing with such example problems. The study specifically indicates the effectiveness of the most recently introduced method, i.e. Z-transformation, over other existing methods. The results show that considering the mechanical properties of materials in conjunction with the space environmental effects produce much more reliable ranking of the candidate materials. Besides, the results recommend introducing more space environmental aspects in the selection process may produce a better outcome.

Filtration in materials selection and multi-materials design

Materials selection methods by free searching consist in four steps: translation, filtration, classification and documentation. The second step, limiting the field of solutions, must be analysed accurately when the constraints are related with free design parameters. This paper describes methods to deal with this filtration step in the cases of materials selection and multi-materials design. The classical filtration in single materials selection is extended to cases with several free geometric parameters. Then, a filtration approach for multi-materials design with undefined number of components and free geometric parameters is proposed. Finally, a case study concerning the design of a pipe material for offshore oil extraction is presented. The application of this work allows a preliminary elimination of unsuitable materials in the definition of multi-materials components, so it will be useful to avoid long numerical studies.

State of the Art Review of Engineering Materials Selection Methods

State of the Art Review of Engineering Materials Selection Methods

Emergy as a tool for Ecodesign: evaluating materials selection for beverage packages in Brazil

The life of a product begins with the initial product design concepts; the costs and potential impacts of a product are heavily influenced by the final design, the production processes, the economic and environmental costs of all raw materials. Additionally, both of these factors are very much affected by how the products are managed during and after consumer usage. Thus, there is an urgent need for a tool to facilitate the integration and assessment of environmental and economic demands into the product planning and development processes. The introduction of environmental accounting based on emergy as a tool to assist in product design is proposed. This complementary tool may be inserted into the conventional design methodology to facilitate in the selection of materials and processes as well as in the actual design of the products. To illustrate the application of the proposed method for material selection, PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles and aluminum cans for beverage packaging are compared. Despite the exceptional condition of aluminum recycling in Brazil, results show that the best option for beverage packages is the PET bottles.

Introducing a novel method for materials selection in mechanical design using Z-transformation in statistics for normalization of material properties

Optimum materials selection is a very important task in design process of every product. There are various materials selection methods like Ashby’s method or digital logic methods such as DL and MDL. In the present research work the Z-transformation method is proposed for scaling the material properties to overcome the shortcoming of MDL method. The results show that despite the simple scaling function used, the ranking procedure is as powerful as MDL method and even it is superior to MDL when it ranks the less important materials existing among a list of candidate materials.