Developing a Methodology for Determination of Elemental Composition of Shielding Materials

Area of Science:

• Nuclear Engineering
• Computational Physics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Radiation transport simulation models are crucial for estimating radiation effects.
• Accurate shielding material composition is vital for reliable detector response predictions.
• Existing methods for material composition analysis can be resource-intensive and time-consuming.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a rapid and efficient methodology for determining shielding material composition.
• To create a computational tool for material analysis in radiation transport modeling.
• To validate the developed method against established techniques like neutron activation analysis (NAA).

Main Methods:

• Development of a C++ code named MatFit.
• Application of densitometry principles for material analysis.
• Utilization of the iterative method from the Spectrum Analysis by Neutron Detectors II (SAND II) program.

Main Results:

• The MatFit code successfully estimated the elemental composition of shielding materials.
• Densitometry-based elemental approximation yielded an attenuation rate within 10% of NAA results.
• The developed method required significantly fewer resources and less time compared to NAA.

Conclusions:

• The densitometry-based method provides a quick, efficient, and effective approach for shielding material composition analysis.
• The MatFit C++ program is recommended for constructing models of detector response.
• This methodology offers a practical solution for improving radiation transport simulations.