Determination of mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic numbers and effective electron numbers for heavy-weight and normal-weight concretes

• The effective atomic number Zeff and the effective electron number Neff depend on the elemental compositions of the heavy-weight and normal-weight concretes.
• The iron, barium and calcium concentration of the concretes is more effective than the other elemental concentrations for the mass attenuation coefficients.
• The Zeff and Neff values of heavy-weight concretes are found to be higher than the Zeff and Neff values of the normal-weight concretes.

Total mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic numbers and effective electron numbers values for different 16 heavy-weight and normal-weight concretes are calculated in the energy range from 1 keV to 100 GeV. The values of mass attenuation coefficients used in calculations are taken from the WinXCom computer program. The obtained results for heavy-weight concretes are compared with the results for normal-weight concretes. The results of heavy-weight concretes fairly differ from results for normal-weight concretes.