Highly stressed engineering parts and components often require material properties that cannot be found within one specific material. This mismatch between requirement and material properties has drastic consequences: reduced functionability of the mechanical parts or a need for superior materials, which results in high material costs. Computer-based systems, such as rule-based systems, finite-element methods, and material databases, provide a way out of this situation. A first prototype of such a system was developed at the University of Dortmund, Department of Computer Science, Chair 1, and Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chair of Material Technology, in the scope of Special Research Field 316. This article describes the fuzzy logic-based extensions of that system. The extensions provide an improvement in speed, a better user interface, and the ability to handle lack of knowledge.
