The role of materials identification and selection in engineering design

Engineering design relates to the design of engineered artifacts formed by materials of various types. Materials play an important role during the entire design process. At the early design stage, materials may achieve some of the required functions. Hence, designers may need to identify materials with specific functionalities in order to find feasible design concepts. ‘Materials identification’ is used to refer to this materials-related design activity. At the downstream design stages, when the physical structure for a design has been determined, materials with specific properties should be selected from a set of candidates, which is commonly referred to as ‘materials selection’.In this paper, an overview of recent research in materials identification and materials selection is conducted, that provides materials support for the early and downstream stages of engineering design respectively. The purpose of this work is to provide a documentary of latest research efforts in this area, to recognize the importance of materials identification and selection for engineering design problem solving, as well as to propose prospects of future research, so that more effort can be spent on those lacking materials-related research.