Illustration of distinct nuclear radiation transmission factors combined with physical and elastic characteristics of barium boro-bismuthate glasses

Abstract

For B2O3-Bi2O3-BaO glass system, γ, proton, alpha, electron, and neutron radiation shielding aspects were examined. Adopting Phy-X/PSD software, mass attenuation coefficients (μ/ρ) have been derived, and such μ/ρ quantities are in good unanimity with evaluated FLUKA, Geant4, and MCNPX codes corresponding μ/ρ end products. Equivalent atomic number and up to 40 mfp ‘buildup factors’ (utilizing G–P fitting procedure) were reckoned at ten distinct penetration depths. Deduced radiation protection efficiency values validated all glasses’ laudable absorption potential for the minimal energy photons. At 15–15 × 103 KeV kinetic energy range, alpha particle and proton mass stopping powers and projected ranges by SRIM code including electron mass stopping power using ESTAR database were evaluated. For fast neutrons, the calculated macroscopic effective removal cross-section (ΣR) reveals that 25B2O3-70Bi2O3-5BaO (mol%) sample owns proportionately larger ΣR (=0.1206 cm–1). 70B2O3-15Bi2O3-15BaO (mol%) glass exhibits the largest total cross-section for thermal neutron absorption. Further, various physical features and elastic (Young's, bulk, shear, and longitudinal) moduli and Poisson's ratio values were derived for all samples. Both BC (bond compression) and M-M (Makishima–Mackenzie) models have been utilized for elastic aspects evaluation, and such features are altered considerably with Bi2O3 increment in the studied glasses. By BC and M-M models, obtained Poisson's ratio is varied at 0.2434 – 0.2749 and 0.2384 – 0.2826 ranges respectively. © 2021 The Author(s)