Title: Selection of shielding gas by adaptive AHP decision model

Authors: Samir Khrais; Tarek Al-Hawari; Maysa Al-Shraideh

Addresses: Industrial Engineering Department, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid, Jordan ' Industrial Engineering Department, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid, Jordan ' Industrial Engineering Department, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid, Jordan

Abstract: Shielding gas selection in welding processes has major implications on the welding strategy. Selecting the appropriate gas is a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem. Therefore, it is important to identify the criteria in the selection process. This study proposes a strategic justification tool for decision makers to select the most appropriate shielding gas based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) framework. The AHP method proposed ranks four of the most common shielding gases based on multi level criteria and the application at hand. The ranks are based on homogenous and independent evaluation criteria. The stability of the preference ranking was tested for robustness by sensitivity analysis. The process was effective in spotting the best shielding gas with the highest overall efficiency. The best shielding gas found was argon, followed by gas blend (argon-helium), next came helium, and lastly carbon dioxide with overall weights of 0.315, 0.284, 0.22, 0.181, respectively.

Keywords: analytical hierarchy process; AHP; shielding gas selection; welding; multicriteria decision making; MCDM; software application; preference ranking.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2013.053421

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2013 Vol.46 No.4, pp.307 - 315

Published online: 29 May 2013 *

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