Application of variance reduction techniques in Monte Carlo simulation of clinical electron linear accelerator

Computation time constitutes an important and a problematic parameter in Monte Carlo simulations, which is inversely proportional to the statistical errors so there comes the idea to use the variance reduction techniques. These techniques play an important role in reducing uncertainties and improving the statistical results. Several variance reduction techniques have been developed. The most known are Transport cutoffs, Interaction forcing, Bremsstrahlung splitting and Russian roulette. Also, the use of a phase space seems to be appropriate to reduce enormously the computing time. In this work, we applied these techniques on a linear accelerator (LINAC) using the MCNPX computer Monte Carlo code. This code gives a rich palette of variance reduction techniques. In this study we investigated various cards related to the variance reduction techniques provided by MCNPX. The parameters found in this study are warranted to be used efficiently in MCNPX code. Final calculations are performed in two steps that are related by a phase space. Results show that, comparatively to direct simulations (without neither variance-reduction nor phase space), the adopted method allows an improvement in the simulation efficiency by a factor greater than 700.

► We have developed a computation scheme dedicated to LINAC simulation based on MC method.
► Several VRT have been used in order to reduce uncertainties.
► The VRT improve the statistical results in short computation time.
► The MCNPX code offers several variance reduction techniques.