5040 Aluminum vs. S20910 Stainless Steel
5040 aluminum belongs to the aluminum alloys classification, while S20910 stainless steel belongs to the iron alloys. There are 29 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (5, in this case) are not shown. Please note that the two materials have significantly dissimilar densities. This means that additional care is required when interpreting the data, because some material properties are based on units of mass, while others are based on units of area or volume.
For each property being compared, the top bar is 5040 aluminum and the bottom bar is S20910 stainless steel.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Brinell Hardness | 66 to 74 | |
| 230 to 290 |
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 70 | |
| 200 |
| Elongation at Break, % | 5.7 to 6.8 | |
| 14 to 39 |
| Fatigue Strength, MPa | 100 to 130 | |
| 310 to 460 |
| Poisson's Ratio | 0.33 | |
| 0.28 |
| Shear Modulus, GPa | 26 | |
| 79 |
| Shear Strength, MPa | 140 to 150 | |
| 500 to 570 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 240 to 260 | |
| 780 to 940 |
| Tensile Strength: Yield (Proof), MPa | 190 to 230 | |
| 430 to 810 |
Thermal Properties
| Latent Heat of Fusion, J/g | 400 | |
| 300 |
| Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C | 190 | |
| 1080 |
| Melting Completion (Liquidus), °C | 650 | |
| 1420 |
| Melting Onset (Solidus), °C | 600 | |
| 1380 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 900 | |
| 480 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 160 | |
| 13 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 23 | |
| 16 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Base Metal Price, % relative | 9.5 | |
| 22 |
| Density, g/cm3 | 2.8 | |
| 7.8 |
| Embodied Carbon, kg CO2/kg material | 8.3 | |
| 4.8 |
| Embodied Energy, MJ/kg | 150 | |
| 68 |
| Embodied Water, L/kg | 1180 | |
| 180 |
Common Calculations
| Resilience: Ultimate (Unit Rupture Work), MJ/m3 | 14 to 15 | |
| 120 to 260 |
| Resilience: Unit (Modulus of Resilience), kJ/m3 | 260 to 380 | |
| 460 to 1640 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 14 | |
| 14 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 50 | |
| 25 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 24 to 26 | |
| 28 to 33 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 31 to 32 | |
| 24 to 27 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 64 | |
| 3.6 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 10 to 11 | |
| 17 to 21 |
Alloy Composition
| Aluminum (Al), % | 95.2 to 98 | |
| 0 |
| Carbon (C), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.060 |
| Chromium (Cr), % | 0.1 to 0.3 | |
| 20.5 to 23.5 |
| Copper (Cu), % | 0 to 0.25 | |
| 0 |
| Iron (Fe), % | 0 to 0.7 | |
| 52.1 to 62.1 |
| Magnesium (Mg), % | 1.0 to 1.5 | |
| 0 |
| Manganese (Mn), % | 0.9 to 1.4 | |
| 4.0 to 6.0 |
| Molybdenum (Mo), % | 0 | |
| 1.5 to 3.0 |
| Nickel (Ni), % | 0 | |
| 11.5 to 13.5 |
| Niobium (Nb), % | 0 | |
| 0.1 to 0.3 |
| Nitrogen (N), % | 0 | |
| 0.2 to 0.4 |
| Phosphorus (P), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.040 |
| Silicon (Si), % | 0 to 0.3 | |
| 0 to 0.75 |
| Sulfur (S), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.030 |
| Vanadium (V), % | 0 | |
| 0.1 to 0.3 |
| Zinc (Zn), % | 0 to 0.25 | |
| 0 |
| Residuals, % | 0 to 0.15 | |
| 0 |