Calculation of gamma-ray attenuation parameters for locally developed shielding material: Polyboron

Publication date: Available online 14 September 2015 Source:Journal of Radiation Research and Applied Sciences Author(s): Ripan Biswash, Hossain Sahadath, Abdus Sattar Mollah, Md. Fazlul Huq In the present study, the mass attenuation coefficient (μ m ) has been calculated analytically for a locally developed shielding material, polyboron, and compared with the values obtained from the WinXCom code, a Windows version of the XCOM database at the photon energy range 0.001 MeV–20 MeV. A good agreement has been observed between these two values. The linear attenuation coefficients (μ) and relaxation lengths (λ) have also been calculated from the obtained μ m values and their variations with photon energy have been plotted. For comparison, other four shielding materials- ordinary concrete, pure polyethylene, borated polyethylene and water have also been studied. The obtained result shows that μ m , μ and λ strongly depends on the photon energy, chemical composition and density of the shielding materials. The values of μ m and μ of polyboron have been found greater than those of pure polyethylene and borated polyethylene but less than those of ordinary concrete and water at low photon energy range; and at the intermediate photon energy range (0.125 MeV–6 MeV), all the sample materials have approximately the same μ m values. It has also been noticed that polyboron has the medial relaxation length (λ) over the entire photon energy range. The tota...
Source: Journal of Radiation Research and Applied Sciences - Category: Physics Source Type: research