In-silico Assessment of Radiation Shielding Effectiveness of Some Materials used in Interior Building Decorations

Abstract

The increasing trend in the use of decorative building materials for aesthetically pleasing purposes while neglecting the shielding effectiveness of these materials against penetrative radiation is a cause of concern radiologically. It is in view of this, that the present study investigates the radiation shielding properties of concrete, gypsum, glass and ceramic tile in order to intimate the end users of the radiological safety of these materials as regard interior building decorations. The linear- and mass-attenuation coefficient (LAC, MAC), half- and tenth-value layers (HVL, TVL), mean free path (MFP), effective atomic number (Zeff), and electron density (Neff) of the selected building materials were calculated for photon energies in the range between 0.05 to 1.408 MeV. The results obtained revealed that gypsum has the highest MAC and LAC values at low energies and slightly higher than other materials at high energies. The HVL, TVL, MFP and Zeff of the studied materials showed that ceramic tiles have the greater value than that of other materials with gypsum having the least. Thus, while concerted effort are being made towards achieving atheistically pleasing interior building decorations, the end users are hereby safe radiologically as these materials are effective in shielding against penetrative radiation.