515.0 Aluminum vs. SAE-AISI D3 Steel
515.0 aluminum belongs to the aluminum alloys classification, while SAE-AISI D3 steel belongs to the iron alloys. There are 22 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 515.0 aluminum and the bottom bar is SAE-AISI D3 steel.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 70 | |
| 190 |
| Elongation at Break, % | 10 | |
| 9.8 to 15 |
| Fatigue Strength, MPa | 130 | |
| 310 to 940 |
| Poisson's Ratio | 0.33 | |
| 0.28 |
| Shear Modulus, GPa | 26 | |
| 74 |
| Shear Strength, MPa | 190 | |
| 470 to 1220 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 280 | |
| 770 to 2050 |
Thermal Properties
| Latent Heat of Fusion, J/g | 470 | |
| 270 |
| Melting Completion (Liquidus), °C | 620 | |
| 1430 |
| Melting Onset (Solidus), °C | 620 | |
| 1390 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 900 | |
| 480 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 23 | |
| 12 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Base Metal Price, % relative | 9.5 | |
| 8.0 |
| Density, g/cm3 | 2.6 | |
| 7.7 |
| Embodied Carbon, kg CO2/kg material | 8.4 | |
| 3.2 |
| Embodied Energy, MJ/kg | 150 | |
| 48 |
| Embodied Water, L/kg | 1120 | |
| 100 |
Common Calculations
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 15 | |
| 14 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 52 | |
| 25 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 30 | |
| 28 to 74 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 36 | |
| 24 to 47 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 13 | |
| 23 to 63 |
Alloy Composition
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| Aluminum (Al), % | 93.6 to 96.6 | |
| 0 |
| Carbon (C), % | 0 | |
| 2.0 to 2.4 |
| Chromium (Cr), % | 0 | |
| 11 to 13.5 |
| Copper (Cu), % | 0 to 0.2 | |
| 0 to 0.25 |
| Iron (Fe), % | 0 to 1.3 | |
| 80.3 to 87 |
| Magnesium (Mg), % | 2.5 to 4.0 | |
| 0 |
| Manganese (Mn), % | 0.4 to 0.6 | |
| 0 to 0.6 |
| Nickel (Ni), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.3 |
| Phosphorus (P), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.030 |
| Silicon (Si), % | 0.5 to 10 | |
| 0 to 0.6 |
| Sulfur (S), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.030 |
| Tungsten (W), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 1.0 |
| Vanadium (V), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 1.0 |
| Zinc (Zn), % | 0 to 0.1 | |
| 0 |
| Residuals, % | 0 to 0.15 | |
| 0 |