Calculation of Gamma and Neutron Shielding Parameters for Reinforced Polymer Composites

Abstract

Abstract In this study, the shielding parameters for isophorone diamine (IPDA) with different ratios of barite (BaSO4), boron carbide (B4C), and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) composites were theoretically investigated. The mass attenuation coefficients (μm) were calculated at the photon energy range (1 keV to 20 MeV) using the xcom program. The obtained data were used to calculate the linear attenuation coefficients (μ), relaxation lengths (λ), half value layer (HVL), and tenth value layer (TVL) for the same range of energy. For comparison, five other shielding materials, ordinary concrete, high-density polyethylene, borated polyethylene, lithium polyethylene, and water, were also studied. The macroscopic fast neutron removal cross-sections (∑R) were calculated for the selected composites. The obtained results show that the shielding parameters strongly depend on the photon energy, chemical composition, and density of the investigated materials. The dependence of mass attenuation coefficients and macroscopic fast neutron removal cross section on the chemical composition of the selected polymer composites was discussed. Barite composite is seen to be a good attenuating material; aluminum oxide composite is a reasonable attenuating behavior, while Boron composite shows a relatively weak attenuating properties. The results obtained through this work can be used to understand the behavior and shielding effectiveness of the selected polymer composites.