Often the decisions in the construction industry are complex because there are many variables involved, being time consuming to group them, and produce an overall assessment of the problem. In this context, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is a tool that supports decision making in engineering problems, in which many factors need to be considered in the choice of methods, products or materials. The aim of this research work is to show how to use the analytic hierarchy process for systematic decision-making in the industrialized mortar industry. A procedure for choosing the mortar mix that has the best performance is proposed, considering some test results as well as a set of previously established criteria. The application of AHP for this problem results in an overall index that assesses the performance of the material in relation to the set of criteria. The results indicated that this technique is effective for supporting decision-making in the choice of industrialized mortar. In the AHP carried out in this investigation, and for the materials involved in this work, the conclusion was made that the replacement of natural sand by crushing sand is advantageous in 78% of the cases.
Mortar; Natural sand; Crushed sand; Analytic hierarchy process
