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Tungsten Carbide vs. Boron Carbide

Both tungsten carbide and boron carbide are non-oxide engineering ceramics. There are 19 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (1, 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 boron carbide.

Metric UnitsUS Customary Units

Mechanical Properties

Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa 4780
1710 to 2200
Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa 630
240 to 460
Flexural Strength, MPa 1830
170 to 410
Fracture Toughness, MPa-m1/2 12
2.5 to 3.5
Knoop Hardness 1670
2600 to 3200
Poisson's Ratio 0.24
0.17 to 0.19
Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa 350
350

Thermal Properties

Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C 1000
1000 to 2500
Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K 280
950
Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K 85
31 to 90
Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K 5.4
4.5 to 5.6

Electrical Properties

Electrical Resistivity Order of Magnitude, 10x Ω-m 0.75
0 to 11

Otherwise Unclassified Properties

Density, g/cm3 15
2.1 to 2.7

Common Calculations

Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points 24
63 to 100
Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points 20
91 to 100
Strength to Weight: Axial, points 6.6
37 to 47
Strength to Weight: Bending, points 7.5
42 to 53
Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s 21
16 to 38
Thermal Shock Resistance, points 7.2
9.7 to 20