AISI 301 Stainless Steel vs. 5050 Aluminum
AISI 301 stainless steel belongs to the iron alloys classification, while 5050 aluminum belongs to the aluminum alloys. There are 32 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 AISI 301 stainless steel and the bottom bar is 5050 aluminum.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Brinell Hardness | 190 to 440 | |
| 36 to 68 |
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 200 | |
| 68 |
| Elongation at Break, % | 7.4 to 46 | |
| 1.7 to 22 |
| Fatigue Strength, MPa | 210 to 600 | |
| 45 to 100 |
| Poisson's Ratio | 0.28 | |
| 0.33 |
| Shear Modulus, GPa | 77 | |
| 26 |
| Shear Strength, MPa | 410 to 860 | |
| 91 to 140 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 590 to 1460 | |
| 140 to 250 |
| Tensile Strength: Yield (Proof), MPa | 230 to 1080 | |
| 50 to 210 |
Thermal Properties
| Latent Heat of Fusion, J/g | 280 | |
| 400 |
| Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C | 840 | |
| 180 |
| Melting Completion (Liquidus), °C | 1420 | |
| 650 |
| Melting Onset (Solidus), °C | 1400 | |
| 630 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 480 | |
| 900 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 16 | |
| 190 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 17 | |
| 24 |
Electrical Properties
| Electrical Conductivity: Equal Volume, % IACS | 2.4 | |
| 50 |
| Electrical Conductivity: Equal Weight (Specific), % IACS | 2.7 | |
| 170 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Base Metal Price, % relative | 13 | |
| 9.5 |
| Calomel Potential, mV | -70 | |
| -760 |
| Density, g/cm3 | 7.8 | |
| 2.7 |
| Embodied Carbon, kg CO2/kg material | 2.7 | |
| 8.4 |
| Embodied Energy, MJ/kg | 39 | |
| 150 |
| Embodied Water, L/kg | 130 | |
| 1190 |
Common Calculations
| Resilience: Ultimate (Unit Rupture Work), MJ/m3 | 99 to 300 | |
| 4.1 to 24 |
| Resilience: Unit (Modulus of Resilience), kJ/m3 | 130 to 2970 | |
| 18 to 330 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 14 | |
| 14 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 25 | |
| 50 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 21 to 52 | |
| 15 to 26 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 20 to 37 | |
| 22 to 33 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 4.2 | |
| 79 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 12 to 31 | |
| 6.3 to 11 |
Alloy Composition
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| Aluminum (Al), % | 0 | |
| 96.3 to 98.9 |
| Carbon (C), % | 0 to 0.15 | |
| 0 |
| Chromium (Cr), % | 16 to 18 | |
| 0 to 0.1 |
| Copper (Cu), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.2 |
| Iron (Fe), % | 70.7 to 78 | |
| 0 to 0.7 |
| Magnesium (Mg), % | 0 | |
| 1.1 to 1.8 |
| Manganese (Mn), % | 0 to 2.0 | |
| 0 to 0.1 |
| Nickel (Ni), % | 6.0 to 8.0 | |
| 0 |
| Nitrogen (N), % | 0 to 0.1 | |
| 0 |
| Phosphorus (P), % | 0 to 0.045 | |
| 0 |
| Silicon (Si), % | 0 to 1.0 | |
| 0 to 0.4 |
| Sulfur (S), % | 0 to 0.030 | |
| 0 |
| Zinc (Zn), % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.25 |
| Residuals, % | 0 | |
| 0 to 0.15 |