ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, cilt.126, sa.106824, ss.1-20, 2023 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
An interval-valued Fermatean hesitant fuzzy set (IVFHFS) not only can be regarded as the union of some
interval-valued Fermatean fuzzy sets (IVFFSs) but also represent the Fermatean hesitant fuzzy elements (FHFEs)
in the form of interval values. So IVFHFSs are extensions of FHFSs and IVFFSs, which are powerful tools
to represent more complicated, uncertain, and vague information. This paper focuses on the four kinds of
correlation coefficients for FHFSs and extends them to the correlation coefficients and the weighted correlation
coefficients for IVFHFSs. In the processing, we develop the least common multiple expansion (LCME) methods
to solve the problem that the cardinalities of Fermatean hesitant fuzzy elements (FHFEs) (or interval-valued
Fermatean hesitant fuzzy elements (IVPHFEs)) are different. In addition, we propose score functions and
accuracy functions of FFEs (or IVFFEs) to rank all the FFEs (or IVFFEs) in an FHFE (or an IVFHFE). Especially,
score functions and accuracy functions of IVFFEs are both presented as interval numbers. Then use the
comparison method of interval numbers to compare two revised IVFHFEs in order to keep the original fuzzy
information as far as possible. What is more, we define the local correlations and local informational energies
which can depict the similarity between two IVFHFEs more meticulously and completely. At last, the numerical
examples show the feasibility and applicability of the proposed methods in multiple criteria decision-making
(MCDM) and clustering analysis.