An interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy MABAC approach for material selection with incomplete weight information

• A hybrid group decision making approach is proposed for material selection.
• Uncertain and vague information is handled by interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets.
• A maximizing optimization model is established for determining criteria weights.
• An extended group decision making method is used to rank alternative materials.
• The applicability and effectiveness are illustrated with two application examples.

In engineering design, selecting the most suitable material for a particular product is a typical multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) problem, which generally involves several feasible alternatives and conflicting criteria. In this paper, we aim to propose a novel approach based on interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IVIFSs) and multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) for handling material selection problems with incomplete weight information. First, individual evaluations of experts concerning each alternative are aggregated to construct the group interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy (IVIF) decision matrix. Consider the situation where the criteria weight information is partially known, a linear programming model is established for determining the criteria weights. Then, an extended MABAC method within the IVIF environment is developed to rank and select the best material. Finally, two application examples are provided to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed IVIF-MABAC approach. The results suggest that for the automotive instrument panel, polypropylene is the best, for the hip prosthesis, Co–Cr alloys-wrought alloy is the optimal option. Finally, based on the results, comparisons between the IVIF-MABAC and other relevant representative methods are presented. It is observed that the obtained rankings of the alternative materials are good agreement with those derived by the past researchers.

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