6081 Aluminum vs. S46500 Stainless Steel
6081 aluminum belongs to the aluminum alloys classification, while S46500 stainless steel belongs to the iron alloys. There are 25 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (8, 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 6081 aluminum and the bottom bar is S46500 stainless steel.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 69 | |
| 190 |
| Elongation at Break, % | 9.0 | |
| 2.3 to 14 |
| Fatigue Strength, MPa | 110 | |
| 550 to 890 |
| Poisson's Ratio | 0.33 | |
| 0.28 |
| Shear Modulus, GPa | 26 | |
| 75 |
| Shear Strength, MPa | 180 | |
| 730 to 1120 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 310 | |
| 1260 to 1930 |
| Tensile Strength: Yield (Proof), MPa | 270 | |
| 1120 to 1810 |
Thermal Properties
| Latent Heat of Fusion, J/g | 410 | |
| 280 |
| Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C | 160 | |
| 780 |
| Melting Completion (Liquidus), °C | 640 | |
| 1450 |
| Melting Onset (Solidus), °C | 610 | |
| 1410 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 900 | |
| 470 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 23 | |
| 11 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Base Metal Price, % relative | 9.5 | |
| 15 |
| Density, g/cm3 | 2.7 | |
| 7.9 |
| Embodied Carbon, kg CO2/kg material | 8.3 | |
| 3.6 |
| Embodied Energy, MJ/kg | 150 | |
| 51 |
| Embodied Water, L/kg | 1180 | |
| 120 |
Common Calculations
| Resilience: Ultimate (Unit Rupture Work), MJ/m3 | 27 | |
| 43 to 210 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 14 | |
| 14 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 50 | |
| 25 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 32 | |
| 44 to 68 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 37 | |
| 33 to 44 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 14 | |
| 44 to 67 |
Alloy Composition
| Aluminum (Al), % | 96.3 to 98.6 | |
| 0 |
| Carbon (C), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.020 |
| Chromium (Cr), % | 0 to 0.1 | |
| 11 to 12.5 |
| Copper (Cu), % | 0 to 0.1 | |
| 0 |
| Iron (Fe), % | 0 to 0.5 | |
| 72.6 to 76.1 |
| Magnesium (Mg), % | 0.6 to 1.0 | |
| 0 |
| Manganese (Mn), % | 0.1 to 0.45 | |
| 0 to 0.25 |
| Molybdenum (Mo), % | 0 | |
| 0.75 to 1.3 |
| Nickel (Ni), % | 0 | |
| 10.7 to 11.3 |
| Nitrogen (N), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.010 |
| Phosphorus (P), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.015 |
| Silicon (Si), % | 0.7 to 1.1 | |
| 0 to 0.25 |
| Sulfur (S), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.010 |
| Titanium (Ti), % | 0 to 0.15 | |
| 1.5 to 1.8 |
| Zinc (Zn), % | 0 to 0.2 | |
| 0 |
| Residuals, % | 0 to 0.15 | |
| 0 |