Experimental and numerical evaluation of gamma-ray attenuation characteristics of concrete containing high-density materials

Abstract

This paper assesses the gamma radiation shielding performance of concrete containing heavy-weight materials partially and fully replacing the cement and fine aggregate. Metal dust waste was used as the cement replacement material in order to improve radiation protection, while high-density fine aggregates including copper slag, barite, and ferrophosphorus were also used. Various high-density concrete samples were prepared by using metal dust waste as a cement substitution and also using several types of high-density material as fine aggregate. A total of sixteen concrete mixtures were developed using various volumes of metal dust waste and high-density fine aggregate types and fractions. These concrete mixtures were tested for their density and compressive strength. Gamma attenuation measurements were taken with these mixtures at three gamma energies of 0.66, 1.17, and 1.33 MeV with the obtained results compared with the simulation method performed using WinXCom software. The results of the present study indicate that the density of hardened concrete was enhanced to a maximum of 42.49%, proportional to higher replacement ratios. Using metal dust waste as a substitute material caused the compressive strength to decrease even though their density was enhanced. For the fine aggregate replaced by heavy-weight materials, their effects on the compressive strength were dependent upon the replacement material. The observed linear attenuation coefficient was observed to be in the range of 0.128 cm−1 to 0.260 cm−1, dependent upon the concrete compositions and gamma ray energies. The consistency of the linear attenuation coefficient from the experimental and simulation results shows the coefficient of determination of 0.728, 0.855, and 0.907 for photon energies of 0.66, 1.17, and 1.33 MeV, respectively. The maximum reduction of the tenth value layer, defined as the thickness of a shielding material that reduces the radiation level by one tenth of the initial level, was observed to be around 25% from the sample with metal dust waste and ferrophosphorus cooperating substitution.