A Study of Photon Interaction Parameters for Some Stainless Steel Alloys

ABSTRACT: In this work, we investigated the effective atom number, the effective electron density, the mean free path, the tenth-value layer, the half-value layer, and the mass attenuation coefficient for some stainless steels: AISI 302, AISI 303, AISI 304, AISI 304L, AISI 310, AISI 316, AISI 321, and AISI 410. The mass attenuation coefficients were determined using the WinXCom computer program in the energy region 1keV- 100 GeV. The effective atom number and effective electron density have been calculated using two different methods, the direct method, and the interpolation method. The results reveal that the values of effective atomic numbers and effective electron numbers are greatly influenced by the atomic number of elements in the alloy and the interaction photon energy. The effective atom numbers grew as the atomic number of the constituents in the alloys increased. The effective atomic number and effective electron density values for all steels were found to have the highest values at 0–0.1 MeV energy and the lowest values in the 0.5–6 MeV energy range. The shielding properties of the steels produced close results, but AISI 304L provided the best protection while AISI 410 provided the least. The results obtained with both methods were also compared. The result of the present study may provide new and helpful knowledge about stainless steel for gamma-ray shielding applications.