Material selection systems and methods for quickly identifying which
existing material best matches a desired set of properties are described
so that product development time can be minimized. Users may input the
properties they desire in a material, which properties they want searched
and scored, the acceptable values of those properties, and a priority
value for each property. Preliminary matching materials may be retrieved
from a materials database, and an index value for each property value may
be calculated. One of four fuzzy membership functions may then be
utilized to calculate a scored property value for each property of each
material. The scored property value may then be weighted to account for
the priority value assigned to each property. The results may then be
sorted in descending order based on their overall match scores, and
output to the user so the best matching material(s) is readily
identifiable by the user.