Conceptualisation of biaxial tensile test setup for sheet metal forming application using fuzzy analytical network process

ABSTRACT

An accurate selection of a concept among all available alternatives is one of the critical and challenging task for the designers. The overall success of commercial products is largely dependent on accurate evaluation and selection of concepts. The present work is mainly focuses on the selection of appropriate concepts for biaxial tensile test setup on uniaxial tensile test machines for sheet metal forming applications. Since biaxial states of stresses are developed in a sheet metal forming process, therefore, uniaxial tensile test is inadequate to provide complete stress strain curves and formability parameters. A more feasible biaxial test setup concept will also help in understanding the behaviour of other anisotropic materials. The available methods for concept selection like Pugh Method, Analytical Hierarchy Process are not able to capture the ambiguity related to the human’s appraisal related to Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). Analytical Network Process (ANP) does take into account the interdependencies of different attributes and key enablers. A hybrid approach to concept selection has been done using fuzzy logic using an analytical network process. Parameters for cost efficiency and usability effectiveness have been considered to zero down upon the best concept. The final judgement was made using weights derived from the FANP.

KEYWORDS:

• Product design
• concept selection
• fuzzy logic
• ANP
• biaxial testing
• uniaxial machine

Acknowledgments

The author is thankful for the financial aid given by Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) under the scheme of Additional competitive research grant.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani [Additional competitive research grant].