EN 1.4020 Stainless Steel vs. 5040 Aluminum
EN 1.4020 stainless steel belongs to the iron alloys classification, while 5040 aluminum belongs to the aluminum alloys. There are 27 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (6, 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 EN 1.4020 stainless steel and the bottom bar is 5040 aluminum.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Brinell Hardness | 190 to 340 | |
| 66 to 74 |
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 200 | |
| 70 |
| Elongation at Break, % | 13 to 34 | |
| 5.7 to 6.8 |
| Fatigue Strength, MPa | 340 to 540 | |
| 100 to 130 |
| Poisson's Ratio | 0.28 | |
| 0.33 |
| Shear Modulus, GPa | 77 | |
| 26 |
| Shear Strength, MPa | 510 to 680 | |
| 140 to 150 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 770 to 1130 | |
| 240 to 260 |
| Tensile Strength: Yield (Proof), MPa | 430 to 950 | |
| 190 to 230 |
Thermal Properties
| Latent Heat of Fusion, J/g | 280 | |
| 400 |
| Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C | 890 | |
| 190 |
| Melting Completion (Liquidus), °C | 1390 | |
| 650 |
| Melting Onset (Solidus), °C | 1350 | |
| 600 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 480 | |
| 900 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 17 | |
| 23 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Base Metal Price, % relative | 11 | |
| 9.5 |
| Density, g/cm3 | 7.6 | |
| 2.8 |
| Embodied Carbon, kg CO2/kg material | 2.5 | |
| 8.3 |
| Embodied Energy, MJ/kg | 37 | |
| 150 |
| Embodied Water, L/kg | 150 | |
| 1180 |
Common Calculations
| Resilience: Ultimate (Unit Rupture Work), MJ/m3 | 140 to 220 | |
| 14 to 15 |
| Resilience: Unit (Modulus of Resilience), kJ/m3 | 460 to 2290 | |
| 260 to 380 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 14 | |
| 14 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 25 | |
| 50 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 28 to 41 | |
| 24 to 26 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 25 to 32 | |
| 31 to 32 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 16 to 23 | |
| 10 to 11 |
Alloy Composition
| Aluminum (Al), % | 0 | |
| 95.2 to 98 |
| Carbon (C), % | 0 to 0.15 | |
| 0 |
| Chromium (Cr), % | 16.5 to 19 | |
| 0.1 to 0.3 |
| Copper (Cu), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.25 |
| Iron (Fe), % | 62.8 to 71.8 | |
| 0 to 0.7 |
| Magnesium (Mg), % | 0 | |
| 1.0 to 1.5 |
| Manganese (Mn), % | 11 to 14 | |
| 0.9 to 1.4 |
| Nickel (Ni), % | 0.5 to 2.5 | |
| 0 |
| Nitrogen (N), % | 0.2 to 0.45 | |
| 0 |
| Phosphorus (P), % | 0 to 0.045 | |
| 0 |
| Silicon (Si), % | 0 to 1.0 | |
| 0 to 0.3 |
| Sulfur (S), % | 0 to 0.030 | |
| 0 |
| Zinc (Zn), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.25 |
| Residuals, % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.15 |