Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B34 (1988) 9-14 9

North-Holland, Amsterdam

EFFECT ON NUMBER ALBEDO VALUES FOR 662 keV PHOTONS

FROM RADTATION SHIEL,DING MATERIALS STRATIFIED WITH LEAD

A. BHAnACHARJEE and A.K. SINHA

Department of Physics, Regional Engineering Coilege, Sikhar-788 010, Assam, India

Received 28 August 1987 and in revised form 6 April 1988

Albedo measurements for backscattered gamma rays from semi-infinite scatterers have suitable applications in the design of
gamma ray shields particularly in nuclear reactor and accelerator shields and in many other nuclear installations. The insertion of
lead slabs into stratified combination with other shielding materials has been found to increase the shielding property appreciably.
The stratified slabs of alternating heterogeneous layers have been found in this investigation to have a virtual homogeneous property
with a definite effective atomic number. The purpose of the present investigation is to find out the extent to which the shielding
property increases in binary configuration with lead and to investigate into the dependence of the saturation thickness of the
shielding media on the effective atomic number of each configuration. The indigeneously designed Uniform Sensitivity Photon
Counter used in this investigation has an edge over all previous methods of experimental measurements that it is independent of
response correction. The number albedo values as well as angular distribution of backscattered photons for iron, aluminium and
concrete stratified with lead slabs at 662 keV energy have been reported here.

1. Introduction surements since it is independent of response correction

and the results are obtained in a straightforward manner.
Experimentally obtained albedo values for semi-in- In the present investigation USPC has been used for the
finite single layer scatterers have been used since the measurement of differential and total albedo values for
mid sixties as a parameter in designing gamma ray backscattered 662 keV photons from stratified combina-
shields [l-6]. However the literature on albedo mea- tion of iron, aluminium and concrete with lead.
surements for stratified layers is scarce. Hyodo [7] car-
ried out measurements with stratified layers of
2. Uniform sensitivity photon counter
aluminium and tin. Nakata [8] investigated the effect of
lead sheet placed in front of semi-infinite concrete It has been shown by Ghose [9] that by using a filter
slabs, though the investigation was not exhaustive. It is of suitable material and thickness with a NaI(T1) crystal,
observed in the present investigation that a suitable
combination of stratified layers of different materials 1.0
and thickness increases the shielding property. Because
of high photoelectric absorption of lead, stratified layers
of lead with slabs of other materials decreases the 0.8
shielding thickness to an appreciable extent. The strati-
fied slabs of alternating heterogeneous layers of differ-
ent materials are found to have a virtual homogeneous t 0.6
property and the effective atomic number are computed E:
on this assumption. The measured albedo values of
stratified slabs are found to agree well with their com-
puted effective atomic number. 0.4
Albedo measurements for photons backscattered
from various scatterers were carried out by Hyodo [l], 0.2
Pozdneyev [2], and Nakata [8] using a phosphor detec-
tor coupled with a multichannel analyser. Since back-
scattered photons have mixed energies, the spectrum 0 I, I ,j
obtained by above method needed response correction. 0 0.6 1.0
The indigeneously designed Uniform Sensitivity Photon t--+
Counter (USPC) has an advantage over previous mea- Fig. 1. Efficiency vs fraction of time graph.

0168-583X/8&/$03.50 0 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.

{North-Holland Physics Publishing Division)
10 A. Bhattacharjee, AX Sinha / Albedo values for 662 kevphotons

0.4 r Table 1
Size and thickness of scatterers used

Scatterer Thickness of Dimensions Symbol in a

each plate or latera configuration
(cm) (cm’ )
Aluminium 0.3 40x40 A
a1
0 1.0 2.0
Iron 0.3 40x40 I
E in Mev Concrete 2 40x40 C
Lead 0.1 40X40 L
Fig. 2. Variation of calculatedefficiency with energy forf = 0.8.

the efficiency of the filter-crystal combination remains

constant from 250 keV in the lower energy range and
above. For paraxially incident gamma rays, the intrinsic
efficiency of the filter-crystal comb~ation expressed in
counts/photo~ is given by
2:= (I- eFaP) eBb+,
where a and b are the thicknesses of the crystal and the
filter and $I and n are total and noncoherent absorp-
tion coefficient of the filter and the crystal respectively.
It was further shown that if the filter of suitable thick-
ness and material was kept in front of the NaI(Tl)
crystal for a certain period f and then removed for the
period (1 -f), the efficiency of the combination under
the condition would be
E = (I- e-“P)f(l -f) i-f ePb*].
Since the above equation is linear with f, the E vs f
lines for a particular set of a and b and for different
values of gamma ray energies will ideally intersect at a
point. For this value of f the ideal response photon
counter will have equal efficiency for the same energy
range under wnsideration. In practice the value of f
has a spread over a smal1 range the centre of which may
be taken as the optimum value of f as shown in fig. 1.
If e is calculated for the photon energies under consid-
eration using the optimum value of f, the efficiency of
the combination is found to remain constant as shown
in fig. 2. In the present inv~tigation the material of the
filter is ~~~~ of thickness 35 g/cm’, the crystal is
a 2 x 2 in. NaI(Tl) scintillator and the optimum value
of f is 0.8.
men&on and symmetry in a configuration which are
given in table 1. The semi-infinite dimension of each
slab has been considered by making the source-to-slab
distance much smaller than the surface dimension of the
slab. This will minimise the escape of photons from the
edge of the slab. The isotropic 137Cs source of 30 PCi
strength is placed at the point of intersection of the
centre of the first layer and the axis of the detector as
shown in fig. 3. The front face of the first layer is kept
at a distance of 100 cm from the detector. The different
scatterer slabs are placed on a goniometer calibrated in
degrees. The angle B between the normal to the surface
of the scatterer and the detector axis is measured at
intervals A0 equal to 10 o from 0 o to 90 O. To eliminate
forward scattered radiation at the 90* position, the
goniometer is placed close to 90 O. The whole assembly
was placed on a foam bed at an appreciable distance
from the floor to avoid scattering from there. Moreover
foam has a negligible scattering effect and the walls and
ceilings being at a distance from the detecting assembly
have little to contribute.
The total and d~ferenti~ albedo values for single
layer of individual scatterer and their stratified com-
position in different configurations for 662 keV photon
energy have been measured. The subscript in a config-
uration shows the total number of plate(s) of the material
present in each configuration. For example in the L,Ai
wn~gmation one plate of lead is followed by one plate
of sunburn and the arrangement has been repeated.
Similarly in the L&Z, configuration two plates of lead
have been placed in front of one plate of concrete and

3. Experimental arrangement and method

3.1. Experimental arrangement

In the present investigation composite layers of

aluminium, iron, concrete and lead have been used.
Concrete slabs have been made by mixing 25% cement GmiMnocer
of quoted composition with 25% gravel and 50% sand. J.-L
i L

Each concrete slab is supplied with an iron net inside, I I

The size and thickness of each scatterer used in this II FOAM II
BE@

measurement for full emergence of backscattered pho-

tons has been decided considering semi-infinite di- Fig. 3. Experimental arrangement.
 A. Bhattacharjee, A.K. Sinha / Albedo values for 662 keVphotons
the arrangement is repeated. The same arrangement has
been followed in all other configurations.
The conventional electronic circuitry comprising of a
pulse amplifier, a single channel analyser and a decade
scaler has been used.
3.2. Experimental method
The differential number albedo Nd(@, X) for a par-
ticular angle f3 and slab thickness x is expressed by the
fraction of photons emerging at the angle B per steradian
and for one primary photon incident on the scatterer.
The total number albedo for a particular thickness is
obtained by integrating the differential values over an-
gular coordinates. The total number albedo N(x) for a
particular thickness x is calculated using the following
equation:
k=9
where the solid angle
Qnk= /Ae/z2~ sin t? d0 for k=O,
0
+ (k++)Ae2~ sin i3 de for I< k<8,
s (k- ;) de
kA8
f 211 sin f? df? for k=9,
f (k-t) A@
and where 48 = 10 O.
The integral counts were noted with anafyser bias
well below the backscattered peak for a time to have
good counting statistics. The differential number albedo
value N,(B, x) for a definite thickness x measured in
angular steps of 10” were calculated by subtracting
integral counts without the scatterer from that with the
scatterer for a counting time 100 s considering the value
of f= 0.8. The total number albedo N(x) for a particu-
lar thickness x was obtained by integration over angu-
lar coordinates as shown in the equation.
The total albedo values were obtained for three
different bias settings of the pulse height analyser. The
bias were set at 1, 2 and 3 V to include backscattered
radiation and to avoid noise at zero bias of the anafyser.
Readings were then extrapolated to zero bias and the
extrapolated value was considered as the total number
albedo value.
4. Effective atomic number
The effective atomic number of the heterogeneous
layer of two materials has been calculated on the proce-
dure followed by Berger and Raso [LOI. The quantity
which distinguishes the backscattering from one material
from that of another is the ratio of the scattering
11
coefficient (?) to the total attenuation coefficient ($‘j.
The total attenuation coefficient (&) and the scatter-
ing coefficient (&) of the two constituent materials in
the heterogeneous mixture at the energy (Ei) are ob-
tained using the formmae given below when the strati-
fied composition is assumed as a homogeneous entity.
where two materials are Ml and M2 and their weight
fractions are whll and wM2 respectively.
Following the above procedure the ratios of &.J&,
are calculated at various energies. The ratio of $//J,’ for
various pure elements with atomic number close to the
composite materials are then computed. By interpola-
tion the effective atomic number Z,,, of the composite
layer is determined- It has also been observed that Zen
depends slightly on energy. By the above method the
computed value of effective atomic number of concrete
slabs used in the present investigation was found to be
12.71 for 662 keV photon energy.
5. Results and discussion
The total albedo values for stratified combinations
of lead and ahnnininm in two configurations and lead
and concrete in three configurations at 662 keV energy
are shown in fig. 4. The two lead/duminium configura-
tions are the stratified combinations A,L, and ItAt
with aluminium and lead as first layer, respectively. It is
seen in table 2 that the total albedo value is higher when
a scatterer of lower atomic number is used as the first
layer in a configuration. From table 2 we observe that
the effect of backscattering from the first layer is sig-
nificant and the backscattering of gamma rays mostly
arises in the region near the front surface of the slab.
The dimensions of individual scatterers, weight frac-
tions, their atomic number and effective atomic number
of stratified layers are shown in table 3. It is observed
from table 3 that the effective atomic number of strati-
fied composition lies between the atomic number of
constituent elements. The minimum thickness of a
scattering surface for which the backscattering effect is
maximum is considered as the saturation thickness. The
total number albedo values as well as saturation thick-
ness of aluminium, iron, concrete, lead and their strati-
fied configurations are shown in table 4. The experi-
mentally obtained values of saturation thickness for 662
keV photons as shown in table 4 when plotted decreases
exponentially with the increase of atomic number (fig.
5). This observation agrees well with that of Paramesh
et al. 1111. It is further observed from the same table
that the saturation thickness reduces to an appreciable
extent when lead scatterers are inserted inside scattering
12 A. Bhattacharjee, A.K. Sinha / Albedo values for 662 keYphotons

r 662 keV

E
” -

.-= 8-
*
L, A,____A___.
z
0 ; 6-
-cl .-
1 1 1 1 1 1 ’ 1
Q 1.0 2.0 E -

i-1cl A
-_ ---__
L2 q-w
L3 q-o-- 01 1 1 I I I I J-7 I
0 1 I 1 1 1 I ’ 1 ’ I 0 30 60 90
0 2 4 6 8 IO
Thickness incm Atomic Number
Fig. 5. Saturation thickness as a function of atomic number.
Fig. 4. Total number albedo values as a function of thickness Present investigation -; Paramesh et al., - - -.
for stratified configurations of aluminium, lead and concrete
for 662 keV photons.
slabs of aluminium, iron and concrete. The angular
distributions of backscattered 662 keV photons are
shown in fig. 6.
Table 2
Total albedo values showing dependence on front layer material The total albedo values of individual elements and
the average values of the stratified combination of
Symbol of the Total albedo Percentage
&I-,, Ii&). (IiLi, L,IJ and GLi, L,CJ as a
configuration value of difference
function of atomic number are shown in fig. 7. The
AILI 69.11 0.185 + 0.01 21.62 results obtained in the present investigation are in good
LI*I 0.145 f 0.01 agreement with the values obtained by Hyodo for single
Ilk1 57.92 0.245 f 0.01 46.93 layer elements. It is observed in the present investiga-
Llfl 0.130 f 0.01
tion both from the table and the graph that the number
ClJ-1 46.78 0.3175 f 0.01 54.33
albedo values decrease with increasing atomic number.
LlCl 0.145 +0.01
This is because the cross-section for photoelectric ab-

Table 3
Thickness, number of plates and weight fraction of constituent scatterer(s) and effective atomic number of each configuration

Configuration Thickness of No. of plates of Weight fraction Computed

constituent constituent Z
scatterer(s) (cm) scatterers

f-r*, L = 0.1 A = 0.3 L=l A=1 W, = 0.583 W, = 0.417

f-a*, L=O.2 ‘4=0.3 L=2 A=1 W, = 0.737 W, = 0.263
f&r L = 0.3 A = 0.3 L=3 A=1 W, = 0.802 W, = 0.192
&I, L = 0.1 z = 0.3 L=l I=1 W, = 0.325 W, = 0.675 57.92
&I, L = 0.2 z = 0.3 L=2 Z=l w, = 0.490 w, = 0.510 65.72
w, L = 0.3 z = 0.3 L=3 Z=l w, = 0.591 w, = 0.409 70.00
LIC, L = 0.1 c = 2.0 L=l C=l W, = 0.171 WC = 0.829 46.78
w, L = 0.2 c= 2.0 L=2 C=l W, = 0.292 WC= 0.708 54.85
w, L=O.3 c=2.0 L=3 C=l W, = 0.382 WC= 0.618 59.43
 A, Bhattacharjee, A. K. Sinha / Albedo values for 662 ke Vphotons 13

Table 4
Total rmmber aibedo values and saturation thickness of scatterers and their stratified combination

Element or Z or Saturation Total munber albedo value

configuration 2 err thickness
Present work Sinha et al. Hvodo et al. Monte Carlo

A 13.00 7.8 0.565 k 0.009 0.545 It 0.006 0.59iO.02 -

LA 69.11 1.2 0.145 * 0.009
L2A1 74.99 I.0 0.120+0.009
L,A, 77.00 0.9 0.095 + 0.009
L 82.00 0.4 0.082 -I_0.009 0.105 _t 0.002 0.09 + 0.02 0.07
LlIl 57.92 I.2 0.130 + 0.009
Wl 65.72 1.0 0.105 * 0.009
L3Il 70.00 0.9 0.100 -i_0.009
I 26.00 3.3 0.395 i 0.009 0.35 tro.01 0.42 * 0.02 0.32
L,Cr 46.78 4.2 0.145 * 0.009
L2Cl 54.85 2.4 0.115 i: 0.009
L3Cl 59.43 2.3 0.096 f 0.009
C 12.71 12.0 0.45 *to.01 0.405 *0.01 - 0.43

sorption for incident photons increases with the in- col~f~rms appr~able reduction of satm~tion thickness
crease of atomic number. For the same reasons the total when plates of higher atomic number are alternately
number albedo values for the stratified layers lie be- placed between slabs of lower atomic number. The
tween albedo values of component layers. This also sharp decrease of backscattering of gamma rays occurs
with the increase of atomic number for the same reason.
A comparative study of total albedo values with other
available data both with experimental and theoretical
662 Kev
L,Tl .......A .._ Monte car10 values particularly in case of single layer
40
L2Il ____.D_____ elements confirms the successful application of USPC
L3II ---o-- in the measurement of number albedo [12,13].
2

X.
ul
?$ 40 L, A, .. A I.....
&A4 ..-_-n____

$ t L3_At--O--

Heterogeneous Layer Q

Angle in degree
Fig. 6. Angular distribution of backscattered 662 keV Photons Atomic Number Z
for stratified configurations of alum.inium, iron, lead and con-
crete. Pig. 7. Total albedo as a function of atomic number.
14 A. Bhattacharjee, A.K. Sinha / Albedo values for 662 kevphotons
The authors are grateful to the Department of Atomic
Energy, Government of India for financing the work.
One of the authors (A.B.) expresses his gratitude to the
Principal, Regional Engineering College, Silchar for the
kind permission accorded to him to undertake the work.
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