Simulation of Cosmic Radiation Transport Inside Aircraft for Safety Applications

Adriane Cristina Mendes Prado,Miguel Antonio Cortes-Giraldo,Mauricio Tizziani Pazianotto,Guillaume Hubert,Marlon Antonio Pereira,Jose Manuel Quesada Molina,Claudio Antonio Federico

doi:10.1109/taes.2020.2985304

Abstract

During the flight, an aircraft is submitted to a radiation environment composed of cosmic-ray-induced particles (CRIP) of which neutrons are responsible for approximately 40% of the crew effective dose and are the main cause of single event effects (SEE) in avionics systems at flight altitudes. A model of Learjet aircraft was developed on Monte Carlo simulation using the MCNPX code in order to detail the CRIP field inside the aircraft. The radiation source modeling was previously developed by a computational platform that simulates the energy and angular distributions of the CRIP along the atmosphere. In this article, we determined the variation of the neutron radiation field in several positions inside the aircraft at 11- and 18-km altitudes and for both equatorial and polar regions. The results suggest that the maximum variation of neutron fluence rate between different positions inside the aircraft shows a tendency of higher differences for a lower energy threshold (thermal and E > 1 MeV) in comparison with those differences for a higher energy threshold (E > 10 MeV). Moreover, the angular distribution results show relevant differences between positions inside aircraft, mainly for thermal neutrons close to the fuel. The general tendency is to enhance these discrepancies for devices with new technologies, due to their lower energy threshold for SEE occurrences.

Highlights

The radiation environment at flight altitude is composed of several types of particles, i.e., neutrons, protons, photons, electrons, muons and pions, which are produced by interactions of primary cosmic radiation of solar and galactic origin with the constituents of the earth’s atmosphere [1]
The radiation effect on electronic devices, called single event effect (SEE), is the main effect of neutrons in embedded electronics and it consists of the impact of a single particle, i.e., neutrons, protons, which deposit enough charge within a sensitive portion of a device to result in its malfunction [2]
Some studies suggest evaluating SEE failures in avionics, which should include, in addition to the susceptibility testing method with radiation sources, the investigation of the energy deposition in integrated circuits using Monte Carlo simulation, in order to evaluate the effects of radiation into its basic components [4] and the evaluation of the susceptibility to fast and thermal neutrons separately, since the latter can cause SEEs due to the interaction with boron, which is present in microelectronics [5]

Summary

Introduction

The radiation environment at flight altitude is composed of several types of particles, i.e., neutrons, protons, photons, electrons, muons and pions, which are produced by interactions of primary cosmic radiation of solar and galactic origin with the constituents of the earth’s atmosphere [1]. Among these various particles, the neutron is of fundamental importance in the aviation field, since it is the particle responsible for over 90% of the effects observed in embedded electronic systems and it is responsible for most of the effective dose on aircraft crews. Some studies suggest evaluating SEE failures in avionics, which should include, in addition to the susceptibility testing method with radiation sources, the investigation of the energy deposition in integrated circuits using Monte Carlo simulation, in order to evaluate the effects of radiation into its basic components [4] and the evaluation of the susceptibility to fast and thermal neutrons separately, since the latter can cause SEEs due to the interaction with boron, which is present in microelectronics [5]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion