X-ray simulation with the Monte Carlo code PENELOPE. Application to Quality Control

A realistic knowledge of the energy spectrum is very important in Quality Control (QC) of X-ray tubes in order to reduce dose to patients. However, due to the implicit difficulties to measure the X-ray spectrum accurately, it is not normally obtained in routine QC. Instead, some parameters are measured and/or calculated. PENELOPE and MCNP5 codes, based on the Monte Carlo method, can be used as complementary tools to verify parameters measured in QC. These codes allow estimating Bremsstrahlung and characteristic lines from the anode taking into account specific characteristics of equipment. They have been applied to simulate an X-ray spectrum. Results are compared with theoretical IPEM 78 spectrum. A sensitivity analysis has been developed to estimate the influence on simulated spectra of important parameters used in simulation codes. With this analysis it has been obtained that the FORCE factor is the most important parameter in PENELOPE simulations. FORCE factor, which is a variance reduction method, improves the simulation but produces hard increases of computer time. The value of FORCE should be optimized so that a good agreement of simulated and theoretical spectra is reached, but with a reduction of computer time. Quality parameters such as Half Value Layer (HVL) can be obtained with the PENELOPE model developed, but FORCE takes such a high value that computer time is hardly increased. On the other hand, depth dose assessment can be achieved with acceptable results for small values of FORCE.