Pressure Sintered (Hot Pressed) Silicon Carbide
Hot pressed silicon carbide is a grade of silicon carbide. It has the highest strength compared to the other variants of silicon carbide. The graph bars on the material properties cards below compare hot pressed silicon carbide to other non-oxide engineering ceramics (top) and the entire database (bottom). A full bar means this is the highest value in the relevant set. A half-full bar means it's 50% of the highest, and so on.
Mechanical Properties
Compressive (Crushing) Strength
2800 MPa 410 x 103 psi
Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus
490 GPa 71 x 106 psi
Flexural Strength
600 MPa 87 x 103 psi
Fracture Toughness
4.6 MPa-m1/2 4.2 x 103 psi-in1/2
Knoop Hardness
2900
Poisson's Ratio
0.15
Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS)
370 MPa 53 x 103 psi
Thermal Properties
Maximum Temperature: Mechanical
1500 °C 2730 °F
Maximum Thermal Shock
210 °C 400 °F
Specific Heat Capacity
690 J/kg-K 0.16 BTU/lb-°F
Thermal Conductivity
120 W/m-K 71 BTU/h-ft-°F
Thermal Expansion
4.4 µm/m-K
Other Material Properties
Density
3.2 g/cm3 200 lb/ft3
Dielectric Strength (Breakdown Potential)
4.0 kV/mm 0.16 V/mil
Electrical Resistivity Order of Magnitude
3.0 10x Ω-m
Common Calculations
Stiffness to Weight: Axial
84 points
Stiffness to Weight: Bending
82 points
Strength to Weight: Axial
32 points
Strength to Weight: Bending
35 points
Thermal Diffusivity
55 mm2/s
Thermal Shock Resistance
12 points
Followup Questions
Further Reading
Properties of Silicon Carbide, Gary L. Harris (editor), 1995
Silicon Carbine Ceramics: Fundamental and Solid Reaction, Shigeyuki Somiya and Yoshizo Inomata (editors), 1991
Handbook of Refractory Carbides and Nitrides: Properties, Characteristics, Processing and Applications, Hugh O. Pierson, 1996
Ceramics and Composites: Processing Methods, Narottam P. Bansal and Aldo R. Boccaccini (editors), 2012
Springer Handbook of Condensed Matter and Materials Data, W. Martienssen and H. Warlimont (editors), 2005
Sintering of Advanced Materials: Fundamentals and Processes, Zhigang Zak Fang (editor), 2010