Young's Modulus of Aluminium Alloy 6061

EAl=6.89×1010 PaE_{\mathrm{Al}} = 6.89 \times 10^{10}\ \text{Pa}
Value6.89e10 Pa
StatusMeasured: ± 1,500,000,000 Pa (0.022 relative)
SourceAluminum Design Manual (The Aluminum Association)
CategoriesMaterial PropertiesEngineering & Trademechanics
E_Al in every pressure unit
pascal68,900,000,000 Pa
kilopascal68,900,000 kPa
megapascal68,900 MPa
bar689,000 bar
atmosphere679,990.13 atm
millimeter of mercury516,792,430 mmHg
pound per square inch9,993,100.1 psi
foot of water column23,050,672 ft H₂O
gigapascal68.9 GPa
kip per square inch9,993.1001 ksi
inch of mercury20,346,158 inHg
inch of water column276,608,060 in w.g.

Learning zone

Ten thousand ksi is the number every aluminium designer carries, and like steel's 29 000 ksi it is essentially alloy-independent: 6061-T6, 6063-T5 and 5052-H32 all sit within a couple of percent of 69 GPa, and even 7075-T6, which is three times stronger than 6061-O, is only 71.7 GPa. Temper changes strength, not stiffness.

The ratio to steel — very nearly 1:3 — drives the design of every aluminium structure. Substituting an aluminium section for an identical steel one triples the deflection and cuts the Euler buckling load to a third, while cutting the weight to about 35 %. That is why aluminium extrusions are deep and ribbed: geometry has to buy back the stiffness the material does not have. Aluminium also has no fatigue endurance limit, so cyclically loaded aluminium is designed to a finite life, and it loses strength fast above about 150 °C — near a weld, the heat-affected zone of 6061-T6 reverts toward annealed properties and is designed as such.