Tungsten Carbide vs. Alumina
Tungsten carbide belongs to the non-oxide engineering ceramics classification, while alumina belongs to the oxide-based engineering ceramics. There are 19 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (7, 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 tungsten carbide and the bottom bar is alumina.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa | 4780 | |
| 1920 to 2750 |
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 630 | |
| 220 to 370 |
| Flexural Strength, MPa | 1830 | |
| 260 to 430 |
| Fracture Toughness, MPa-m1/2 | 12 | |
| 3.7 to 7.2 |
| Knoop Hardness | 1670 | |
| 960 to 1660 |
| Poisson's Ratio | 0.24 | |
| 0.22 to 0.24 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 350 | |
| 210 to 290 |
Thermal Properties
| Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C | 1000 | |
| 650 to 1730 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 280 | |
| 870 to 940 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 85 | |
| 14 to 30 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 5.4 | |
| 6.7 to 8.2 |
Electrical Properties
| Electrical Resistivity Order of Magnitude, 10x Ω-m | 0.75 | |
| 6.2 to 14 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Density, g/cm3 | 15 | |
| 3.4 to 4.1 |
Common Calculations
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 24 | |
| 35 to 53 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 20 | |
| 57 to 62 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 6.6 | |
| 14 to 23 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 7.5 | |
| 19 to 28 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 21 | |
| 3.7 to 10 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 7.2 | |
| 4.9 to 14 |