Fuzzy Logic Approach for Material Selection in Mechanical Engineering Design

Abstract

The selection of materials for a product in mechanical design holds a great importance as the selection of a specific material can impact the success or failure of the product. There are lot of methods and approaches that are available for material selection process, but majority of them work well with only material properties dealing in quantitatively measured properties. With so much amount of material being developed and researched each and every day, the selection of an optimum material has become a fuzzy characteristic. In this chapter, a simplified fuzzy logic is used as a simple, easy and effective method for choosing an optimum material in mechanical design problems. An illustration is carried out when the fuzzy logic is applied to the selection of material for aircraft wing's spar and how an optimum material is achieved.