Title: Multi-criteria decision making for the evaluation of the performance of bearing materials

Authors: S. Bhattacharya, B. Sarkar, R.N. Mukherjee

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India. ' Department of Production Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India. ' Department of Mathematics, Burdwan University, West Bengal, India

Abstract: Some of the most important engineering materials are those used for bearings. However, the properties required of these materials are many, and are often conflicting in nature. Generally, it is impossible to identify any one material which will perfectly respond to all such requirements in a given environment. Hence, the question of optimisation. The present article is based on one such optimisation technique known as Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). It considers a number of alternative materials as well as design criteria (respectively 4 and 5 in the present article) and arrives at the most suitable material. The algorithm calculates the Priority Vector (PV) values by eigenvector method of pair-wise comparison. These PV values are calculated through an iterative process, and are accepted if the concerned matrices yield Consistency Ratios (CR) below a specific limit. Finally, Composite Priority (CP) values are calculated, and the alternatives are ranked according to their CP values. The algorithm is coded in Fortran language. The program is general and can be used to handle smaller or larger number of criteria and alternatives as well.

Keywords: bearing materials; analytical hierarchy process; AHP; composite priority values; Brown and Gibson model; sensitivity analysis; performance evaluation; multi-criteria decision making; MCDM; optimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMSI.2008.019619

International Journal of Materials and Structural Integrity, 2008 Vol.1 No.4, pp.371 - 377

Published online: 17 Jul 2008 *

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