Comparative analysis of the transmission factors of lead and concrete manufactured with electric arc furnace slag aggregates. (1st June 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Maharaj, Davatee; Mwasha, Abrahams
• Is Part Of: Construction & building materials. Volume 112(2016)
• Page Start: 1141
• Page End: 1146
• Publication Date: 2016-06-01
• Subjects: X-ray radiation shielding -- Electric arc furnace slag -- Aggregates -- Concrete -- Attenuation -- Transmission factor; Building materials -- Periodicals; 624.18
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.02.130
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0950-0618

Abstract

Highlights: Concrete manufactured with purely electric arc furnace slag aggregates has comparable radiation shielding parameters with lead. At typical energy values of 100 kV, 125 kV 150 kV used in x-ray rooms, it is possible to construct a concrete shielding partition of transmission factors of 0.00052, 0.00081 and 0.00094 respectively which exactly corresponds to that of a 2 mm thickness of lead. Abstract: The most common form of shielding utilized is lead in X-ray rooms, and little attention is given to alternative and more sustainable types of shielding materials. This work evaluates the X-ray radiation shielding parameters of concrete made with fine and coarse electric arc furnace slag aggregates and compares the transmission factor of this type of concrete with lead. Different thicknesses of concrete specimens of 15 cm, 17 cm, 19 cm and 22 cm were exposed to X-ray energies of 40 kV, 60 kV, 80 kV, 100 kV, 125 kV and 150 kV. In this work, it was found that at increased thicknesses of the concrete samples, the linear attenuation, mass attenuation coefficient, half value layer and tenth value layer of the concrete improved. It was found that it is possible to construct slag concrete shielding partitions with thicknesses of 104.5 mm, 156 mm and 176 mm respectively which give the same transmission factor as the lead thickness usually used. At 125 kV, a relation has been created showing that there was good correlation between the theoretical and experimental values of the transmission factors at the different thicknesses of the slag concrete which could be used to design the X-ray partitions walls.