Exploring a monotonically non-decreasing behavioral function on shielding properties and transmission factors in borosilicate glasses through heavy metal oxide reinforcement

Abstract

In this study, the gamma-ray attenuation properties and transmission factors of different types of glasses formed in the (B2O3)x[(ZnO)0.60-(SiO2)0.40]1-x system as a function of increasing heavy metal oxide ratio were investigated. For transmission factor and absorption coefficient calculations, the general-purpose Monte Carlo code MCNPX (2.7.0) was used. In addition, the Phy-X/PSD code is used to obtain some important gamma-ray shielding parameters. According to the obtained results, increasing the quantity of heavy metal oxide in the glass composition favorably affected the examined parameters and lowered the transmission factor and buildup factor values. Furthermore, it has been observed that parameters such as the absorption coefficient and the effective atomic number increase as a function of increasing heavy metal oxide contribution into glass configuration. The lowest half value layer values are reported for S1 sample. For example, half value layers are reported as 3.313 cm, 3.449 cm, 3.764 cm, 3.625 cm, 3.515 cm for S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5 sample at 1 MeV photon energy, respectively. According to the transmission factor values, S1 is the sample that allows the least transmission of primary photons and demonstrates the highest resistance. It was observed that the minimal exposure build-up factor and energy absorption buildup factor values for the S1 sample at 10 mean free paths. It can be concluded that the heavy metal oxide additive applied to borosilicate glasses creates a non-decreasing functional behavior effect that is monotonic in gamma-ray attenuation parameters.