Silicon Carbide vs. Zamak 3
Silicon carbide and Zamak 3 belong to fundamentally different material chemistries. Silicon carbide is a ceramic material, while Zamak 3 is a metal. Therefore, their performance will be even more dissimilar than would be suggested by the difference in properties. There are 17 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (22, 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 silicon carbide and the bottom bar is Zamak 3.
Mechanical Properties
| Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa | 2780 to 3900 | |
| 410 |
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 370 to 490 | |
| 86 |
| Fracture Toughness, MPa-m1/2 | 3.4 to 4.6 | |
| 12 |
| Knoop Hardness | 2500 to 2900 | |
| 110 |
| Poisson's Ratio | 0.14 to 0.21 | |
| 0.25 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 210 to 370 | |
| 280 |
Thermal Properties
| Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C | 500 to 1590 | |
| 95 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 670 to 1180 | |
| 410 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 120 to 170 | |
| 110 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 4.0 to 4.5 | |
| 27 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Density, g/cm3 | 3.0 to 3.2 | |
| 6.4 |
Common Calculations
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 69 to 84 | |
| 7.5 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 79 to 82 | |
| 23 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 18 to 34 | |
| 12 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 24 to 38 | |
| 15 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 38 to 79 | |
| 43 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 6.9 to 18 | |
| 8.6 |