Original Manuscript Journal of Composite Materials 2023, Vol. 0(0) 1–28 © The Author(s) 2023 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/00219983231189551 journals.sagepub.com/home/jcm Experimental investigation and numerical modeling of mechanically alloyed Al-TiC composites Mohamed IA Habba , Waheed S Barakat  and FS Hamid  Abstract The present work studies the mechanical alloying, consolidation, evaluation, modeling, and optimization of the Al-TiC composites mixed at different milling times (MTs) of 6, 12, 24, and 48 h and reinforced with three TiC concentrations (3, 6, and 12 vol.%). The Al-TiC composites formed via the powder metallurgy method. The XRD of the mixed powder and the consolidated composites were investigated. Furthermore, density, wear, compressive strength, and hardness have been examined for the consolidated composites. Also, the worn surface of the wear-tested composites was studied utilizing SEM analysis. The response surface methodology (RSM) was involved to clarify the effects of mechanical alloying parameters of MTs and the TiC concentrations and their interaction towards achieving their optimum process factors to produce Al-TiC composites. The RSM results prove the applied factors’ importance in improving the consolidated composites’ properties. The optimization results show the optimum parameters to produce Al-TiC composites are 28.4 MTs and 12 vol.% TiC to produce Al-TiC composites with 304.4 ± 3 MPa compressive strength, 191.21 ± 2 HV hardness, 2.88 ± 0.008 g/cm 3 density, and 9.7 ± 0.01 mg weight loss. The ANOVA analysis reveals that the suggested models can virtually expect the tested responses of density, hardness, compressive strength, and weight loss with a confidence level of over 90, 98, 95, and 95%, respectively. Keywords Al-TiC composite, mechanical alloying, response surface methodology, mechanical properties, worn surfaces Introduction Aluminum-matrix composites (AMCs) are widely em- ployed in the aerospace, automotive, and marine industries because of their high specific strength, low density, stiff- ness, thermal conductivity, and wear resistance. To enhance the aluminum (Al) matrix’ s microstructure and mechanical characteristics, several ceramic-reinforced, including Al 2 O 3 , 1,2 ZrO 2 , 3 B 4 C, 4 TiB 2 , 5 SiC, 6 and TiC 7,8 have been introduced as reinforcements. Due to its high specific strength, low density, strong wear resistance, and good wettability with Al-matrix, TiC appears to be a popular choice among these ceramic particles. Al-TiC composite, one of the Al-based composites reinforced with TiC ceramic particles. Different production techniques were used to produce Al-based composites, like casting, 9 accumulative roll bonding, 10 friction stir deposition, 11 vapor deposition, 12 and powder metallurgy (PM). 13,14 Among these production processes, PM is one of the most chosen methods in forming AMCs. 4 The mechanical alloying (MA) process is the PM process used to consolidate the powders. It can eliminate the agglomeration and segregation of reinforcements within the matrix and enhance the reinforcement dispersion in the matrix. 3 The MA process has widely distributed the dif- ferent ceramic particles of Al 2 O 3 , SiC, B 4 C, and TiC re- inforcements into AMCs. 15–18 Due to the excessive plastic deformation and rupture processes that occur under the impact of small and hard balls with the powders, MA functions as a simple mechanical milling process that produces homogenous nanocrystalline materials and com- posites. 4 The recent previous investigations 7,8,13,17,19,20 Mechanical Department, Faculty of Technology and Education, Suez University, Suez, Egypt Corresponding author: Mohamed IA Habba, Mechanical Department, Faculty of Technology and Education, Suez University, El-Salam, Suez 43527, Egypt. Email: mohamed.atia@suezuniv.edu.eg Data Availability Statement included at the end of the article