Materials Selection in Conceptual Design using Weighting Property Method

Abstract

The needs to combine selection of materials (SM) processes during the early stages of design have previously been realized. In this work, an attempt is made to ensure that there is no gap between function oriented design and the material. A methodology is being developed, for a concurrent qualitative selection of materials method (CQSM) that takes into consideration the importance of materials properties in the early design stages. The method is modified from quantitative method called weighting property method used for selecting materials in the detailed design stage. The method was modified to qualitative method; it means that the input data for materials property of the design must be qualitative data which consisting of groups or sub-groups of materials, range value properties and approximate values. By giving weight to the degree of importance of the properties, a developed database is search for the best group that can satisfy the CQSM. In the present investigation, a new numerical method has been build by using visual basic developed select materials for mechanical design in conceptual stage. This method, which is based on weighting property method (WPM) uses a new digital logic (DL) comparison with the traditional (DL) makes the result more accurate because it does not elimination problem of the least important criterion.