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Cork vs. Carbon-carbon

Cork and carbon-carbon belong to fundamentally different material chemistries. Cork is a polymeric material, while carbon-carbon is ceramic. 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 cork and the bottom bar is carbon-carbon.

Metric UnitsUS Customary Units

Mechanical Properties

Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa 1.0
240
Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa 0.020
95
Shear Modulus, GPa 0.010
36
Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa 0.85
19

Thermal Properties

Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K 2000
760
Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K 0.040
40
Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K 200
4.0

Otherwise Unclassified Properties

Density, g/cm3 0.15
1.7

Common Calculations

Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points 0.074
31
Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points 60
89
Strength to Weight: Axial, points 1.6
3.0
Strength to Weight: Bending, points 13
9.1
Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s 0.13
31
Thermal Shock Resistance, points 16
3.5