An interval-valued neutrosophic based MAIRCA method for sustainable material selection

A plethora of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods is available for selecting an optimal material for a design problem with quantitative measurements. However, little research has been conducted on material selection methods in an interval neutrosophic environment to address uncertainty. In this research paper, a unique framework is presented that combines Interval-Valued Neutrosophic Sets (IVNSs) with the entropy–MultiAtributive Ideal-Real Comparative Analysis (MAIRCA) framework with the aim of simultaneously handling the objective criteria with crisp inputs and subjective criteria with ambiguous or uncertain information. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach, a wing-spar of a Human-Powered Aircraft (HPA) is considered. At first, a panel of three subject experts makes judgments on the alternatives or criteria linguistically through IVNSs. Next, the skill level of each expert involved in the decision-making process is assessed using a novel weighting approach with linguistic information. After obtaining the objective criteria weights using the entropy weighting method, the performance of candidate materials for the HPA spar is evaluated using the MAIRCA method. The results indicate that S-glass70%-Epoxy Continuous Fibers, Ti-2Fe-3Al-10V and Al-7075 T6 are the top-ranked alternatives for spar application. The strong correlation of the proposed approach with other extant MCDM techniques demonstrates the reliability of the results obtained. In addition, the efficacy and practicality of the material selection tool is also validated with an outranking method in a simplified neutrosophic environment.