Material selection in biomedical applications: comparing the comprehensive VIKOR and goal programming models

Recent developments in production techniques facilitated developing a wide range of materials. This issue is of vital importance in the field of biomaterials due to the impact of these materials on the quality and durability of human life. In biomaterial selection, in addition to beneficial and non-beneficial criteria, target value criteria are desired. Thus, the comprehensive VIKOR method was developed to address this issue, but the method did not include design’s constraints or goals of design with continuous variables all together. Therefore, a mixed 0-1 goal programming model as an alternative method is proposed in this study that can be used for simultaneous material selection and design optimisation. The proposed model is justified by ranking the candidate materials for a rigid pin which is implanted in the shaft of the femur and comparing the result with other methods. Furthermore, advantages and disadvantages of the models are discussed in material selection problems.