DEVELOPMENT OF AN EXPERT SYSTEM FOR MATERIAL SELECTION OF MACHINE PARTS

Abstract

Engineering Material selection is a very difficult task because of unlimited available materials. This research was carried out to develop a user-friendly interface that would allow an individual to filter through a large number of materials in order to find the most suitable material options for the production of some selected machine parts. Material selection mathematical models, for twenty-five common machine parts, were developed using the Ashby model format. The software tool used in the development of the expert system is PHPMyAdmin. This was written in Hypertext pre-processor (PHP) language designed to handle the administration of MY Structure Query Language (MySQL) server over the World Wide Web. The system was implemented using the Expert system to predict the material for machine parts of the previously fabricated project. The result of these tests shows that for a developed soya beans milk extraction machine, the software suggested low carbon steel for the shaft in place of mild steel used for the fabrication. Comparing the software predictions for shaft materials with standard materials (in textbooks) used `for manufacturing these parts shows greater conformity. The software is highly recommended for manufacturing industries to improve their material choice for mass production.