An expert system for life cycle assessment of casting process

This paper presents an expert system for the life cycle assessment of die-casting process. The system is built around a robust database of the die-casting process parameters. The sustainability of die-casting is measured using performance indicators, namely investment cost of machines and equipment, operating cost of machines, and energy-related carbon emissions. The methodology of developing an expert system first uses MATLAB function (combivec) to generate alternate process plans thereafter it uses a multi-criteria decision-making method as technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) for selecting the best feasible process plan. Results show that the proposed approach can compare alternate process plans using sustainability performance indicators for selecting the best feasible option. An illustrative example is presented in this paper for demonstrating how to implement the proposed expert system.