Investigation of the radiation shielding capability of ${x}\hbox {PbO}$–$(50-x)\hbox {BaO}$–$50{\hbox {B}}_2 {\hbox {O}}_3$ glass system using Geant4, Fluka, WinXCOM and comparison of data with the experimental data

Abstract

In this study, mass attenuation coefficient ($\mu _{\mathrm {m}}$), transmission fractions (T), effective atomic numbers (${\hbox {Z}}_{\mathrm {eff}}$) and half-value layer (HVL) of the ${x}\hbox {PbO}$–$(50-x)\hbox {BaO}$–$50 {\hbox {B}}_2 {\hbox {O}}_3$ (where $x = 10, 20, 30, 40 \, \hbox {mol}\%$) glass system have been determined from the Monte Carlo simulations carried out with Geant4 and Fluka simulation toolkits and WinXCOM database software. The calculated results were compared with the experimentally obtained $\mu _{\mathrm {m}}$ values of the selected glass in order to validate the Geant4 model of HPGe detector and Fluka model of NaI(Tl) detectors. T, ${\hbox {Z}}_{\mathrm {eff}}$ and HVL shielding parameters of the studied glass system indicate that increase of PbO content from 10 to 40% results in a better shielding behaviour thanks to the high atomic number of lead.