SIMULATION ASSISTED AND EXPERIMENTALLY TESTED 3D PRINTED IONIZATION RADIATION SHIELD

Abstract

This study investigates the lightweight polylactic acid (C3H4O2)n as a material for ionisation radiation shielding applications. Through a combination of Solid- Works software for shield design and Monte Carlo simulations using Geant4 for comprehensive analysis, the effectiveness of the design PLA shield after removing significant weight in the form of hollow spheres with a radius of 4mm and number of hollow spheres(72, 40, 24, 16, 8) in a cuboid shield with dimension( 5.3, 3.8, 2.4)cm in geant4. Using SolidWorks for experimental work and geant4 designed through C++ programming, the PLA shield design demonstrated that a specially designed PLA shield effectively reduces the shield’s weight. Using Geant4 allowed for a detailed examination of gamma-ray interactions with the PLA shield and plots generated in Root software, considering factors such as material composition, thickness, and geometric configuration. To count the gamma radiation, the NaI(Tl) scintillator detector was used for the Cs-137 mono-energetic source with energy 661.7 keV and activity 100kBq, a source made by the BRIT/INDIA. This study advances the ongoing efforts to develop effective and sustainable radiation shielding design solutions. It also highlights the potential of PLA as a model for determining the optimal design for gamma-ray attenuation, which can be applied to higher atomic number elements to achieve the intended outcomes.