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Cork vs. Optical Silicon

Cork and optical silicon belong to fundamentally different material chemistries. Cork is a polymeric material, while optical silicon 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 (11, 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 optical silicon.

Metric UnitsUS Customary Units

Mechanical Properties

Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa 1.0
120
Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa 0.020
150
Shear Modulus, GPa 0.010
80
Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa 0.85
110

Thermal Properties

Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K 2000
700
Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K 0.040
150
Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K 200
3.0

Otherwise Unclassified Properties

Density, g/cm3 0.15
2.3

Common Calculations

Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points 0.074
35
Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points 60
75
Strength to Weight: Axial, points 1.6
13
Strength to Weight: Bending, points 13
22
Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s 0.13
93
Thermal Shock Resistance, points 16
18