Abstract Purpose: The main goal of the current study is to clarify the role of milling time, extra aluminum, porosity and microwave energy on ignition behavior of combustion synthesized Al2O3/TiC composite. In fact the present work deals with the microwave-combustion synthesis of Al2O3/TiC composite from Al, C and TiO2 Design/methodology/approach: Al2O3/TiC composites were synthesized under different conditions using microwave-combustion synthesis method. Taguchi robust design method with L9 orthogonal array was implemented to optimize the experimental conditions as well as the minimum ignition time and maximum combustion temperature. Applied stress (porosity), ball milling time, excess aluminum and power of microwave were chosen as controlling factors. Findings: Ball milling time had the most influence on the ignition time (72.87%) and the stress stood in second place (23.55%). Extra aluminum had the most influence on the combustion temperature (55.08%) and the stress stood in second place (25.92%). Power of microwave had the least influence on both ignition time and combustion temperature. Research limitations/implications Detection of alumina content particularly at very low content and measuring the ignition temperature are the practical limitation of the current study. Originality/value Optimizing the ignition behavior of microwave-combustion synthesized Al2O3/TiC composite using Taguchi robust design method can be the originality of the current research.

Keywords