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Tungsten Carbide vs. Silicon Carbide

Both tungsten carbide and silicon 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 silicon carbide.

Metric UnitsUS Customary Units

Mechanical Properties

Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa 4780
2780 to 3900
Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa 630
370 to 490
Flexural Strength, MPa 1830
410 to 600
Fracture Toughness, MPa-m1/2 12
3.4 to 4.6
Knoop Hardness 1670
2500 to 2900
Poisson's Ratio 0.24
0.14 to 0.21
Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa 350
210 to 370

Thermal Properties

Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C 1000
500 to 1590
Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K 280
670 to 1180
Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K 85
120 to 170
Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K 5.4
4.0 to 4.5

Electrical Properties

Electrical Resistivity Order of Magnitude, 10x Ω-m 0.75
0.94 to 3.3

Otherwise Unclassified Properties

Density, g/cm3 15
3.0 to 3.2

Common Calculations

Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points 24
69 to 84
Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points 20
79 to 82
Strength to Weight: Axial, points 6.6
18 to 34
Strength to Weight: Bending, points 7.5
24 to 38
Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s 21
38 to 79
Thermal Shock Resistance, points 7.2
6.9 to 18