A Review of Cutting-edge Techniques for Material Selection

Selecting the optimum material for a given application is a complex task for engineers and designers across all industrial fields. There are a huge number of materials now available with a range of different properties and behaviours and so it has become even more necessary to carry out a systematic process in order to screen and/or rank the materials to give a promising number of candidates. The output of the material selection process depends upon which method is used. In some methods, a chart can be used to identify promising candidates whereas in others a single ‘optimum’ material may be chosen or a ranked list of candidates identified. This paper aims to summarise the documented techniques for material selection, evaluating the methods that are currently available, and compare the methods for consistency and effectiveness