REPRESENTING USER PREFERENCE IN ENGINEERING DESIGN DOMAINS USING AN ENHANCED WEIGHTED FUZZY-REASONING ALGORITHM

This article addresses a specific feature of the engineering design pr ocess, i.e. the assignment of priorities among the parameters that con strain the design process. These parameters are often fuzzy in nature and Chen's weighted fuzzy reasoning algorithm was adapted for reasonin g with them. We present the modified version of Chen's algorithm, whic h is called the enhanced weighted fuzzy reasoning algorithm, and apply it to some sample rules developed for the domain of solvent selection for carbon dioxide removal processes. This article also suggests how the proposed algorithm improves upon previous efforts at automating th e solvent selection for the carbon dioxide removal task. (C) 1998 Else vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.