Investigations of mass attenuation coefficients and exposure buildup factors of some low-Z building materials

To check the gamma ray shielding properties of selected low-Z building materials such as Soil-I, Soil-II, Dolomite, Gypsum, Igneous Rock and Lime Stone, some parameters of dosimetric interest have been investigated in the energy range 0.015–15 MeV. The photon interactions with the samples have been discussed mainly in terms of mass attenuation coefficient, equivalent atomic number and exposure buildup factor. From the present investigations, it has been concluded that the values of exposure buildup factors are very large in the medium energy region and Soil-I acts as best gamma ray shielding material among the selected samples.

► Low cost materials show better shielding effectiveness than concrete for E > 1 MeV.
► Correlation between Zeff and EBF for shielding effectiveness.
► Buildup factors are necessary to study shielding properties of materials.