Determination of the mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic numbers and effective electron numbers of some concrete containing barites for 511, 835 and 1275 keV gamma rays

Abstract

The linear attenuation coefficients (μl) of concretes including barite fractions of 0%, 50% and 100% were measured at the gammaenergies of 511, 835 and 1275 keV. The measurements have been performed using a low level gamma counting spectrometerincluding a 3”x3” NaI(TI) detector by ORTEC Inc., connected to a multichannel pulse height analyzer. Total mass attenuationcoefficients, effective atomic numbers and effective electron numbers of concretes are calculated in the energy range from 1 keV to100 GeV. The values of mass attenuation coefficients used in the calculations are taken from the XCOM. The measurement valueswere compared with the theoretically calculated results. The measured results of mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomicnumbers and effective electron densities were found to be in good agreement with the calculations.