LAUSR

Abstract This work focused to survey the radiation shielding properties of cement paste samples doped without and with Cu 10% and brass 5, 10, 15, 20% wt. Molar volume of the cement samples was determined by the densities obtained with the Archimedes principle. Transmission measurements of the samples were achieved using an Ultra Ge detector at 81, 276, 302, 356, 383 keV photon energies emitted from the Ba-133 radioactive point source. The essential parameters; mass attenuation coefficient ( μ / ρ ), half value layer (HVL) and effective atomic number ( Z e f f ), for the cement samples were obtained experimentally and classed with the theoretical outcomes computed by using WinXCOM program. Z e f f and effective electron density (Nel) were also assessed for cement samples in the energy range 1 keV-100 GeV by utilizing theoretical results. Additionally, a five parameter geometric progression (G-P) fitting approximation was used to estimate EBF at 0.015-15 MeV photon energies and penetration depths (up to 40 mfp). The results indicate that, smallest HVL and Nel and largest μ / ρ values belong to 20% brass doped sample. The highest Z e f f values were found for brass 20% containing sample, as un-doped Portland cement possesses the lowest values of Z e f f . The smallest EBF values are observed for high proportion of brass doped cement samples. It is concluded from the results that the cement paste samples containing brass have remarkable and comparable shielding competence.