Expert opinion-based multi objective optimization: an application in plasma coating technology

Multi-objective optimization is a very important activity which is applied in many different fields. When solving this problem, it is important to determine weights for criteria. If the weight of criteria is determined according to dry mathematical formulas, the opinion of researchers will be ruined. On the contrary, if the weight of criteria is determined according to the subjective opinion of researchers, it is also easy to make mistakes. This study applies a method of determining the weight of criteria based on experts’ opinions and conditions must be also strictly satisfied, thereby both of the above limitations have been remedied. Such method is known as FUCOM (FUll COonsistency Method). An application example was carried out for multi-objective optimization in the plasma coating process. Plasma coating is a modern coating technology. This method is increasingly used in many different fields. However, determining the value of technological parameters to ensure the quality of high-quality products is a very complicated job. In order to ensure many requirements of the product, it is necessary to determine the optimal value of the technological parameters. Four criteria to evaluate a coating process include the adhesion strength of the coating, the shear strength of the coating, the tensile strength of the coating, and the porosity of the coating. The task of multi-objective optimization in this study is to determine the values of three input parameters (including: spray current intensity, powder feed flow, and spray distance) to ensure that the desired values of the four criteria are simultaneously achieved. After the weight of criteria is determined by the FUCOM method, the multi-objective optimization problem has been solved. Experiments to verify the optimal results were also conducted, thereby demonstrating the correctness of the methodology. The optimal values of the technology parameters (spray current intensity, powder feed flow, and spray distance) have been determined to be 568.69 A, 31.87 g/min, and 170.19 mm, respectively

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