Attenuation Parameters and Effective Atomic Numbers of Concretes Containing Pumice for Some Photon Energies by Experiment, Simulation and Calculation

Abstract

Photon mass attenuation coefficients and effective atomic numbers for three types of concretes containing pumice mineral in different rates (namely 0%, 50% and 100%) were studied by photon transmission experiments, by simulations and by theoretical calculations. Experimental procedure was realized by using a 3ʺ×3ʺ NaI(Tl) connected to a 16k multichannel analyzer detector system for 511, 835 and 1275 keV photon energies. In simulations, Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation toolkit was used to estimate the total mass attenuation coefficients via total linear attenuation coefficients. For theoretical calculations, web version of XCOM code was used at 1 keV – 100 GeV energy region for comparison. Also, mean free paths and half value layer thicknesses of concretes were calculated at this energies by means of attenuation coefficients obtained by three methods. Results from each method were found to be in a reasonably good agreement. Besides, it was concluded that addition of heavy weight elements to concrete effected attenuation parameters positively.

Keywords

• Photon attenuation,effective atomic numbers,Geant4,XCOM,pumice concrete

Attenuation Parameters and Effective Atomic Numbers of Concretes Containing Pumice for Some Photon Energies by Experiment, Simulation and Calculation

Öz

Photon mass attenuation coefficients (µ) and effective atomic numbers (Z_eff) of three types of concretes containing pumice mineral in different rates (0%, 50% and 100%) were studied by photon transmission experiments and by simulations for 511, 835 and 1275 keV energies. Experimental procedure was realized by using a 3ʺ×3ʺ NaI(Tl) connected to a 16k multichannel analyzer detector system. In simulations, Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation toolkit was used to estimate the total mass attenuation coefficients. For theoretical calculations, web version of XCOM code was used at 1 keV – 100 GeV energy region for comparison. Also, mean free paths and half value layer thicknesses of concretes were calculated at this energies by means of attenuation coefficients obtained by three methods. Results from each method were found to be in a reasonably good agreement.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Photon attenuation,effective atomic numbers,Geant4,XCOM,pumice concrete

Kaynakça

1. Akman F., Durak R., Turhan M.F., Kaçal M.R. 2015. Studies on effective atomic numbers, electron densities from mass attenuation coefficients near the K edge in some samarium compounds. Applied Radiation and Isotopes 101, 107-113.
2. Akkurt I. 2009. Effective atomic and electron numbers of some steels at different energies. Annals of Nuclear Energy 36, 1702-1705.
3. Akkurt I., Akyıldırım H., Mavi B., Kilincarslan S., Basyigit C. 2010. Photon attenuation coefficients of concrete includes barite in different rate. Annals of Nuclear Energy 37, 910-914.
4. Allison J., Amako K., Apostolakis J., Arce P., Asai M., Aso T., Bagli E., Bagulya A., Banerjee S., Barrand G., Beck B.R., Bogdanov A.G., Brandt D., Brown J.M.C., Burkhardt H., Canal Ph., Cano-Ott D., Chauvie S., … Yoshida H. 2016 Recent developments in Geant4. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment. 835, 186-225.
5. Bagheri R., Moghaddam A.K., Yousefnia H. 2017. Gamma ray shielding study of barium-bismuth-borosilicate glasses as transparent shielding materials using MCNP-4C code, XCOM program, and available experimental data. Nuclear Engineering and Technology. 49, 216-223.
6. Berger M.J., Hubbell J.H., Seltzer S.M., Chang J., Coursey J.S., Sukumar R., Zucker D.S., and Olsen K. 2010. XCOM: photon cross section database (version 1.5). (Online) Available: http://physics.nist.gov/xcom. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD. (accessed 20 March 2018).
7. Chilton A.B., Shultis J.K., Faw R.E. 1984. Principles of radiation shielding, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.
8. Elmahrough Y., Tellili B., Souga C. 2015. Determination of total mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic numbers and electron densities for different shielding materials. Annals of Nuclear Energy 75, 268-274.

9. Jaeger T. 1965. Principles of radiation protection engineering, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York.
10. Geant4 A Simulation Toolkit. http://geant4.web.cern.ch/ (accessed 14 May 2018).
11. Han I., Demir L. 2009. Determination of mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic and electron numbers for Cr, Fe and Ni alloys at different energies. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B. 267, 3-8.
12. Hine G.J., 1952. The effective atomic numbers of materials for various gamma interactions. Physics Review 85, 725-737.
13. Hubbell, J.H. 1982. Photon mass attenuation and energy-absorption coefficients from 1 kev to 20 MeV. International Journal of Applied Radiations and. Isotopes. 33, 1269–1290.
14. İçelli O., Erzenoğlu S. 2004. Effective atomic numbers of some vanadium and nickel compounds for total photon interactions using transmission experiments. Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer. 85, 115-124.
15. Kumar T.K., Reddy K.V. 1997. Effective atomic numbers for materials of dosimetric interest. Radiation Physics and Chemistry 50, 545-553.
16. Manohara S.R., Hanogodimath S.M. 2007. Studies on effective atomic numbers and electron densities of essential amino acids in the energy range 1 keV-100 GeV. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B. 258, 321-328.
17. Medhat M.E., Demir N., Tarim U.A., Gurler O. 2014. Calculation of gamma-ray mass attenuation coefficients of some Egyptian soil samples using Monte Carlo methods. Radiation Effects & Defects in Solids. 169(8), 706-714.
18. Murty V.R.K., Winkoun D.P., Devan K.R.S. 2000. Effective atomic numbers for W/Cu alloy using transmission experiments. Applied Radiation and Isotopes 53, 945-948.
19. Ozyurt O., Altinsoy N., Karaaslan Ş.İ., Bora A., Buyuk B., Erk İ. 2018. Calculation of gamma ray attenuation coefficients of some granite samples using a Monte Carlo simulation code. Radiation Physics and Chemistry. 144, 271-275.
20. Prasad S.G., Parthasaradhi K., Bloomer W.D. 1998. Effective atomic numbers for photoabsorption in alloys in the energy region of absorption edges. Radiation Physics and Chemistry. 53, 449-453.
21. Price B.T., Horton C.C., Spinney K.T. 1957. Radiation shielding, Pergamon Press Inc., London.
22. Shamshad L., Rooh G., Limkitjaroenporn P., Srisittipokakun N., Chaiphaksa W., Kim H.J., Kaewkhao J. 2017. A comparative study of gadolinium based oxide and oxyfluoride glasses as low energy radiation shielding materials. Progress in Nuclear Energy. 97, 53-59.
23. Taqi A.H. and Khalil H.J. 2017. An investigation on gamma attenuation of soil and oil-soil samples. Journal of Radiation Research and Applied Sciences. 10, 252-261.
24. Un A., Demir F. 2013. Determination of mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic numbers and effective electron numbers for heavy-weight and normal-weight concretes. Applied Radiation and Isotopes 80, 73-77.
25. Woods J. 1982. Computational methods in reactor shielding, Pergamon Press Inc., New York.
26. Vahabi S.M., Bahreinipour M., Zafarghandi M.S. 2017. Determining the mass attenuation coefficients for some polymers using MCNP code: A comparison study. Vacuum. 136, 73-76.
27. Yaltay N., Ekinci C.E., Çakır T., Oto B. 2015. Photon attenuation properties of concrete produced with pumice aggregate and colemanite addition in different rates and the effect of curing age to these properties. Progress in Nuclear Energy 78, 25-35.