An alternative method for calculation of half-value layers without the knowledge of attenuation coefficient

Mehdi Hassanpour; Marzieh Hassanpour; Mayeen Uddin Khandaker; Mohammad Rashed Iqbal Faruque; B Alshahrani; Hamid Osman

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.110910

An alternative method for calculation of half-value layers without the knowledge of attenuation coefficient

Appl Radiat Isot. 2023 Sep:199:110910. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.110910. Epub 2023 Jun 22.

Authors

Mehdi Hassanpour¹, Marzieh Hassanpour², Mayeen Uddin Khandaker³, Mohammad Rashed Iqbal Faruque⁴, B Alshahrani⁵, Hamid Osman⁶

Affiliations

¹ Space Science Centre (ANGKASA), Institute of Climate Change (IPI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia. Electronic address: mhassanpour67@yahoo.com.
² Space Science Centre (ANGKASA), Institute of Climate Change (IPI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia.
³ Centre for Applied Physics and Radiation Technologies, School of Engineering and Technology, Sunway University, Bandar Sunway, 47500, Selangor, Malaysia; Department of General Educational Development, Faculty of Science and Information Technology, Daffodil International University, DIU Rd, Dhaka, 1341, Bangladesh.
⁴ Space Science Centre (ANGKASA), Institute of Climate Change (IPI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia. Electronic address: rashed@ukm.edu.my.
⁵ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Radiological Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Taif University, 21974, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 37379789
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.110910

Abstract

Radiation protection is crucial for the safe utilization of ionizing radiation and minimizing the harmful effect upon exposure, hence some standards have been defined by some relevant organizations for the safe uses of radiation. One of the parameters relevant to the calculation of gamma ray shielding is the half-value layer (HVL), which is normally calculated using the knowledge of linear attenuation coefficient (μ). In this research, an attempt has been made to directly calculate HVL without the knowledge of μ via Monte Carlo simulation technique. For this purpose, in the Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX) code, F1, F5 and Mesh Popul sequences tallies were defined and the optimal structure for the least measurement error was introduced. The MCNPX calculated values showed reasonable agreement with the experimental findings. According to the obtained results, it is suggested that in order to reduce the error of HVL calculations, in exchange for the MCNPX code, the values of the R parameter and the radiation angle of the source should be considered according to the calculations introduced in this plan. Because the results show that by considering the measurement error between 6 and 20%, the code output can be cited in different energy ranges.

Keywords: Gamma radiation shielding; Half-value layer (HVL); Linear attenuation coefficient; MCNPX.