Limestone
Limestone is a type of common industrial natural stone. It has the highest tensile strength and the lowest thermal conductivity among natural stone materials. The graph bars on the material properties cards below compare limestone to other natural stone materials (top) and the entire database (bottom). A full bar means this is the highest value in the relevant set. A half-full bar means it's 50% of the highest, and so on.
Mechanical Properties
Compressive (Crushing) Strength
700 MPa 100 x 103 psi
Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus
77 GPa 11 x 106 psi
Poisson's Ratio
0.25
Shear Modulus
30 GPa 4.4 x 106 psi
Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS)
100 MPa 15 x 103 psi
Thermal Properties
Maximum Temperature: Mechanical
360 °C 670 °F
Specific Heat Capacity
920 J/kg-K 0.22 BTU/lb-°F
Thermal Conductivity
2.1 W/m-K 1.2 BTU/h-ft-°F
Thermal Expansion
8.0 µm/m-K
Other Material Properties
Density
2.6 g/cm3 160 lb/ft3
Dielectric Strength (Breakdown Potential)
8.0 kV/mm 0.31 V/mil
Common Calculations
Stiffness to Weight: Axial
16 points
Stiffness to Weight: Bending
55 points
Strength to Weight: Axial
11 points
Strength to Weight: Bending
18 points
Thermal Diffusivity
0.88 mm2/s
Thermal Shock Resistance
12 points
Followup Questions
Further Reading
ASTM C242: Standard Terminology of Ceramic Whitewares and Related Products
CRC Materials Science and Engineering Handbook, 4th ed., James F. Shackelford et al. (editors), 2015