Monte Carlo simulations of proton irradiation effects on PTFE, KEVLAR, EFTE, DYNEEMA, and NOMEX polymeric materials used in astronaut space suits

Abstract

Astronauts suffer from natural space radiation as high-energetic protons, heavy ions, and secondary particles produced in collisions. Galactic cosmic rays and solar particle events are the basic parts of space radiation spectra. Wears and accessories designs for use by astronauts aim to minimize these deleterious effects of this environment. Polymeric materials are preferred in astronaut suits because they are lightweight, inexpensive, and durable. Teflon, KEVLAR, ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, DYNEEMA, and NOMEX polymeric astronaut wear materials were exposed to high energetic proton irradiations by the use of Monte Carlo simulation tools SRIM-2013 and FLUKA 2011.1. Proton energies are applied as 1, 2, and 3 GeV known as in order of space radiation magnitude. Besides, displacement per atom calculations were done and results were discussed in the plane of structural changes in the given polymeric materials. After interacting with protons with 1, 2, and 3 GeV energies, the material with the lowest Displacement per atom value among the five studied materials is DYNEEMA with values of 1.01E − 25, 9.96E − 26, and 1.00E − 25, respectively. Again, among the materials studied for these three proton energies, DYNEEMA has the highest electronic stopping power values are, respectively, 2.11E − 03, 2.10E − 03, and 2.31E − 03. DYNEEMA has the highest nuclear stopping power values as 2.23E − 07, 1.53E − 07, and 4.27E − 07, respectively.