Home hand rehabilitation for stroke is becoming increasingly important due to logistic and financial challenges. Developing Daily-life Integrated Hand-rehabilitation Products (DIHP) aims to enable the application of at-home rehabilitation. The materials of these products are essential for their success, however, selecting materials for DIHP has not been investigated yet. Previous research on material selection showed that it is done strictly on material properties or based on a human-centered approach. Hence, in this study, we propose a hybrid model for choosing materials for DIHP. To achieve this, we first combined the findings of previous material selection processes into a comprehensive material selection model. We applied this model in a case study, in which we first selected three materials based on their properties. Following, we 3d printed a DIHP out of the chosen materials and tested the feeling of the materials with multiple expert groups. Our findings suggest that the proposed material selection method is promising and highlights that our comprehensive model provides more insights when compared to a strict material property-based selection.

Aluminum foam sandwich (AFS) is an innovative material for lightweight structures due to its various advantages (e.g. low specific mass). Today, many material properties (e.g. strength) are still not well researched, which is why AFS is not yet considered in current material selection processes. Therefore, AFS has rarely been used in the past and its application potential remains unused. This paper presents an approach toward an appropriate method for considering AFS in material selection processes to assist designers in evaluating whether the use of AFS in an application is profitable.

In current era of Anthropocene, human activities and their consequences on Earth ecosystems are under the lens of scientific research. Researchers in every field of study are trying to find alternatives to promote sustainable development. So it is for design, where researchers exploiting the problem-framing and problem-solving nature of the design discipline itself, trying to find new methodologies and tools to enhance sustainable development.

One of the most important tasks in the design for a sustainable production is focused on material selection. In this paper, authors will present a reflection upon material selection methods and an overview of existing material repositories. Traditionally, material selection is usually attributed to designers or technical professionals but nowadays information concurring in materials selection became a complex task to manage. Therefore, authors propose a case study concerning information management upon materials and their selection presented in a new possible approach: material selection as a collaborative task between several departments of an industrial company, to promote an aware information management activity upon materials.

Material selection is a fundamental step in mechanical design that has to meet all the functional requirements of the component. Multiple-attributed decision-making (MADM) processes are already well established to choose the preeminent alternative from the finite set of alternatives, but there is some lack of geometrical evidence if the alternatives are considered as multi-dimensional points. In this paper, a fresh spatial approach is proposed based on nearest neighbor search (NNS) in which the nearness parameter is considered as a Manhattan norm (Taxicab geometry) in turn which is a function of the Euclidean norm and cosine similarity to raise a preeminent alternative under the MADM framework. Cryogenic storage tank and flywheel are considered as two case studies to check the validity of the proposed spatial approach based on NNS in material selection. The result shows the right choice for the cryogenic storage tank is the austenitic steel (SS 301 FH), and for the flywheel, it is a composite material (Kevler 49-epoxy FRP) those are consistent with the real-world practice and the results are compared with other MADM methods of previous works.

This study deals with both a decision model for making decisions under epistemic uncertainty and how to use it for selecting optimal materials under the same uncertainty. In particular, the proposed decision model employs a set of possibilistic objective functions defined by fuzzy numbers to handle a set of conflicting criteria. In addition, the model can calculate the compliance of a piece of decision-relevant (imprecise) information with a given objective function. Moreover, the model is capable to aggregate the calculated compliances for the sake of ranking a given set of alternatives against the set of conflicting criteria. The problem of selecting materials for making the body of a vehicle is considered as an example. In this problem, the indices for selecting the materials are unknown because the specifications regarding the vehicle body are not given. In addition, the data relevant to material properties entails a great deal of imprecision. The presented decision model can quantify the above-mentioned epistemic uncertainty in a lucid manner and generate a list of optimal materials.

Poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) was melt compounded with different nanoparticles using a twin-screw extruder. Nano TiO2, SiO2 and Al2O3 in 0.5, 1 and 2 wt% were added to the polymeric matrix as reinforcements. Nine polymeric nanocomposite samples were injection molded. Impact strength, Young's modulus, Rockwell hardness-R and cost of raw materials were considered as different criteria. Two procedures of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods were performed for solving material selection problem. Criteria weighting was performed using analytical hierarchy process (AHP). According to weights that obtained from AHP, the alternative ranking was implemented using TOPSIS (the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution) and MOORA (multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis) methods. The results indicated that the addition of nanoparticles to the polymeric matrix was significantly improved mechanical properties. The results showed a 94% and 229% improvement in impact strength for PMMA containing 1 and 2 wt% TiO2 compared to pure PMMA. The results also revealed that hardness and Young's modulus of PMMA were increased by addition of different nanoparticles. The implementation of MCDM methods illustrated that PMMA-2 wt% TiO2 is the best alternative. Also, PMMA-1 wt% TiO2 and PMMA-2 wt% SiO2 are the next alternatives, respectively.

Extension of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) into more extreme operating conditions will require a wider range of material properties than are currently available in conventional systems. Successful integration of new materials is dependent on concurrent development of compatible fabrication routes and scale appropriate evaluation techniques. This review focuses on emerging material classes that have potential to replace silicon-based MEMS in elevated temperature applications. Basic silicon mechanical properties and micromachining methods are reviewed to provide context for developing material systems such as silicon carbide, silicon carbonitrides, and several nickel-based alloys. Potential improvements in strength, thermal stability, and reliability are juxtaposed with fabrication, reproducibility, and economic feasibility issues that must also be addressed.

In this paper, material selection has been done for dielectric substrate material in microstrip patch antenna (MPA) for three distinct classes of wireless communication applications using Ashby's approach. This material selection procedure is based on the creation and evaluation of Ashby's chart of different material indices. These material indices in turn affect the device performance indices, which decide the best possible dielectric material to be used as substrate for MPAs. In this work, quality factor, relative permittivity, and temperature coefficient of resonant frequency are chosen as material indices of MPA's dielectric substrate to get relevant performances. Ashby's selection chart shows that 0.75MgAl2O4–0.25TiO2 material for millimeter waves applications, Ca[(L1/3Nb2/3)0.85Ti0.15]O3−δ for mobile base station applications, and (Ba0.95Ca0.05)O–Sm2O3–4.5TiO2 ceramic for mobile phone miniaturization applications are the promising materials that allows best overall performance in MPAs for wireless communication.

Depuis plus de 30 ans, le Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA) a mis au point et systématiquement utilisé l'essai de disques pour étudier et mesurer la sensibilité à l'hydrogène gazeux des matériaux. En 1990, cette technique expérimentale est devenue une norme AFNOR pour sélectionner les alliages métalliques destinés à réaliser des bouteilles et réservoirs d'hydrogène sous haute pression. L'essai de disques compare la résistance à la pression de membranes essayées sous hélium et sous hydrogène dans les mêmes conditions expérimentales. La technique est simple, sensible et ses résultats sont fiables ; l'essai de disques permet des études originales et variées ; il révèle des paramètres qui ne sont pas toujours significatifs avec des méthodes d'essais moins performantes. Tout d'abord, nous présentons une synthèse de différents résultats généraux : la fragilisation par l'hydrogène en fonction de la résistance mécanique du matériau, de sa composition chimique et de ses traitements mécaniques et thermiques, l'influence du milieu gazeux (teneur en hydrogène ou en impuretés)... Ensuite, nous montrons plusieurs cas d'endommagement de matériaux : la fragilisation métallurgique consécutive à l'utilisation à température élevée ou moyenne de différents alliages, l'influence d'un vieillissement thermique sur la fragilisation par l'hydrogène gazeux, les différentes fragilisations si l'hydrogène est introduit dans le matériau avant ou pendant l'utilisation de l'équipement, l'influence du mécanisme de durcissement sur le vieillissement thermique et la fragilisation par l'hydrogène, la réduction de la durée de vie en fatigue consécutive au vieillissement thermique en service, au contact avec de l'hydrogène gazeux et à l'importante synergie entre ces deux phénomènes. Les résultats de fragilisation par la température et par l'hydrogène sont analysés de façon à être extrapolés aux conditions extrêmes de sollicitation d'un moteur de fusée : utilisation à haute température sous faible pression partielle d'hydrogène, refroidissement rapide, sursaturation en hydrogène et déformations oligocycliques d'origine thermique.