Investigation of the mechanical properties, shielding parameters and flux distribution in borate-Based glass system using PHITS code; a simulation study

A descriptive method for the attenuation and spatial distribution of flux of photons and fast neutrons for 20Bi2O3 - xPbO - (80 - 2x) B2O3 - xGeO2 (x = 5, 10, 20 and 30 mol %) glass systems (coded as S1, S2, S3, S4 respectively) were performed using PHITS code. The calculated elastic moduli, Young modulus, EM was ranged between 32.58 and 33.81 GPa, while bulk KM and shear GM moduli were in the range of 23.36-30.45 and 12.32-13.15 GPa, respectively. However longitudinal modulus LM was between 40.89 and 46.89 GPa. The spatial distribution of the transmitted photon flux showed a decrease with increasing Pb and Ge concentrations. The mass attenuation coefficients, mu m were found to be 70.755-0.042, 76.160-0.043, 83.378-0.046 and 91.895-0.047 cm2/g for S1, S2, S3 and S4 respectively in the energy range of 0.015-15 MeV. The Half Value Layer (HVL) and mean free path (MFP) values were registered in the order of S4 < S3 < S2 < S1. At low energy, the exposure buildup factor EBF of the glasses recorded decrease by the substitution of B2O3 by PbO and GeO2 contents. At energy 0.15 MeV, a crossed behavior was noticed. However, at high energy the inverse behavior of EBF was observed. The neutron transmitted flux percentages, at thickness 10 cm were in the range of 10.26-15.51% at all the selected energies. The linear absorption coefficients sigma T, ranged between 0.220 and 0.278 cm- 1 which indicated that S4 represents the best shielding capacity among all. The overall results of this work assessed the selected glasses potential for use as gamma and fast neutron radiation shielding products.