Application of experimental measurements, Monte Carlo simulation and theoretical calculation to estimate the gamma ray shielding capacity of various natural rocks

摘要

Experimental measurements and Monte Carlo simulation were applied to simulate the mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) for five various rock samples collected from southwestern Sinai, Egypt. Also, for the same rocks we determined the MAC and exposure buildup factors (EBF and EABF) theoretically using Phy-X/PSD software. The results show that there is adequate agreement between experimental and simulated results as well as with the Phy-X/PSD data. The linear attenuation coefficient (mu) decreases as the photon energy increases. The decrease is dramatically steep for energies bellow 0.3445 MeV and then gradually decreases with further increasing in the energy. Basalt-2 has slightly higher u than basalt-1 and both rocks have higher u than limestone (Dike), Basalt sill, and Rhyolite. We also calculated the effective atomic number (Z(eff)) for the investigated rocks and the Z(eff) values are in the range of 18.80-23.68, 18.52-23.57, 13.98-20.49, 19.15-23.89 and 22.32-26.68 for baslat-1, basalt-2, dike, basalt-sill and rhyolite respectively. The result showed that basalt-2 possesses the lowest half value layer at all energies followed by basalt-1. The radiation protection efficiency (RPE) at 122 keV is found to be in the range of 34.295-38.982, while at 662 keV in the range of 17.402-22.886. The obtained results of EBF and EABF showed that limestone (Dike) possess the highest EBF and EABF while samples Basalt-1 and Basalt-2 possess the lowest EBF and EABF among the studied rocks.