Abstract
The selection of suitable material plays key role in an engineering design process. The material selection process is complicated task due to availability of large number of materials with varied properties. Hence there is a need of some logical method for material selection. The main aim of this research work is to apply Multi-criteria decision techniques (MCDM), i.e. Extended PRO-METHEE II (EXPROM2), Technique of order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), and multicriteria decision analysis method for solving material selection issues. Five varieties of iron, ductile iron, cast iron, surface hardened alloy steel, carburised steel and nitrided steel were selected as an alternatives and four evaluation criteria such as surface hardness (SH), bending fatigue limit (BFL), cost (C) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS), were selected as criteria for selecting the best material. The weightage of criterias have been computed based on compromise weightage of Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and entropy methods. The comparison of results obtained from each method has been performed which provides performance score of all materials. The results show that ductile iron and cast iron were found as the best materials. The results of this research work show that MCDM is a versatile tool that can be used in design stage. Hence MCDM can be employed in solving real time material selection problem.