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Carbon-carbon vs. Balsa

Carbon-carbon and balsa belong to fundamentally different material chemistries. Carbon-carbon is a ceramic material, while balsa is polymeric. Therefore, their performance will be even more dissimilar than would be suggested by the difference in properties. There are 14 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (8, 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 carbon-carbon and the bottom bar is balsa.

Metric UnitsUS Customary Units

Mechanical Properties

Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa 240
7.0
Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa 95
3.0
Poisson's Ratio 0.32
0.38
Shear Modulus, GPa 36
0.23
Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa 19
14

Thermal Properties

Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K 760
1700
Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K 40
0.1
Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K 4.0
6.5

Otherwise Unclassified Properties

Density, g/cm3 1.7
0.13

Common Calculations

Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points 31
13
Strength to Weight: Axial, points 3.0
30
Strength to Weight: Bending, points 9.1
99
Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s 31
0.45
Thermal Shock Resistance, points 3.5
51