Effect of permutation and combination patterns on the performances of shielding materials

Composite materials have been extensively employed to enhance the performance of shielding materials under the condition of neutron and γ radiation fields. Researchers generally design the component based on the energy spectrum information of the radiation field with Monte Carlo software, then achieve the uniform mixing of components with specific technological processes, ultimately obtaining the composite shielding material with expected performance. However, due to the substantial differences in properties between the components of composite materials, the process of mixing them uniformly is complex and costly. This drawback may be unacceptable in specific situations such as scenarios requiring extensive use and complex on-site installation environments. Lead boron polyethylene (PbBPE), a widely studied and utilized composite material, was analyzed using the Geant4 software in conjunction with the K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) algorithm to calculate and analyze the performance of laminated materials with the same mass fraction and total mass but with different permutations. The results indicate that the performance of the sandwich-like laminated material formed by filling boron polyethylene (BPE) between two layers of lead (Pb) plates may be superior to that of the composite material PbBPE.