Evaluation of the performance of bearing materials using distance-based fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making process

The problem of choosing a bearing material for a particular application involves many parameters which are often conflicting in nature. Some of the parameters involve exact numerical values, while others may be expressed only as inexact numbers or linguistic variables. The present method handles all these type of data, viz. crisp numbers, fuzzy numbers and fuzzy linguistic variables. It is a revised fuzzy-version of the multi-criteria decision-making process called TOPSIS. The approach has the advantage that it considers both the ideal and the anti-ideal solutions, and seeks to find out that alternative which is nearest to the ideal and farthest from the anti-ideal solution. This is consistent with the usual human nature of finding out a solution in unstructured environment.