Boron Carbide vs. Ferrite
Boron carbide belongs to the non-oxide engineering ceramics classification, while ferrite belongs to the oxide-based engineering ceramics. There are 18 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (2, 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 boron carbide and the bottom bar is ferrite.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa | 1710 to 2200 | |
| 430 to 2000 |
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 240 to 460 | |
| 120 to 140 |
| Flexural Strength, MPa | 170 to 410 | |
| 120 to 150 |
| Fracture Toughness, MPa-m1/2 | 2.5 to 3.5 | |
| 1.4 to 1.5 |
| Knoop Hardness | 2600 to 3200 | |
| 630 to 700 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 350 | |
| 48 to 71 |
Thermal Properties
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 950 | |
| 710 to 1050 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 31 to 90 | |
| 3.9 to 6.3 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 4.5 to 5.6 | |
| 8.0 to 9.3 |
Electrical Properties
| Dielectric Constant (Relative Permittivity) At 1 MHz | 6.4 | |
| 12 to 270 |
| Electrical Resistivity Order of Magnitude, 10x Ω-m | 0 to 11 | |
| 1.0 to 1.5 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Density, g/cm3 | 2.1 to 2.7 | |
| 4.7 to 4.8 |
Common Calculations
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 63 to 100 | |
| 15 to 16 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 91 to 100 | |
| 35 to 36 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 37 to 47 | |
| 2.8 to 4.1 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 42 to 53 | |
| 6.2 to 8.0 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 16 to 38 | |
| 0.78 to 1.9 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 9.7 to 20 | |
| 3.0 to 4.6 |