A methodological concept for phase change material selection based on multiple criteria decision analysis with and without fuzzy environment

Selection of proper phase change material (PCM) plays an important role towards the development of a latent heat thermal energy storage system. Selection of the phase change material is a difficult and restrained task due to the immense number of different available materials having different characteristics. One has to select such PCM which will give the desired thermal performance at minimum cost. This study deals with two Multiple Attribute Decision-Making (MADM) methods to solve PCM selection problem. These two methods are technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method and fuzzy TOPSIS method that uses linguistic variable presentation and fuzzy operation. Both the methods use an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to determine weights of the criteria. TOPSIS and fuzzy TOPSIS methods are used to obtain final ranking. A problem to evaluate the best choice of PCM used in solar domestic hot water system is considered here to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed model. Empirical results showed that the proposed methods are viable approaches in solving PCM selection problem. TOPSIS is suitable for the use of precise performance ratings while the fuzzy TOPSIS is a preferred technique when the performance ratings are vague and inaccurate.