Radiation Shielding of Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites Incorporating Lead Nanoparticles—An Empirical Approach

Abstract

In the present work, an empirical approach based on a computational analysis is performed to study the shielding properties of epoxy/carbon fiber composites and epoxy/glass fiber composites incorporating lead nanoparticle (PbNPs) additives in the epoxy matrix. For this analysis, an MCNP5 model is developed for calculating the mass attenuation coefficients of the two fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites incorporating lead nanoparticles of different weight fractions. The model is verified and validated for different materials and different particle additives. Empirical correlations of the mass attenuation coefficient as a function of PbNPs weight fraction are developed and statistically analyzed. The results show that the mass attenuation coefficient increases as the weight fraction of lead nanoparticles increases up to a certain threshold (~15 wt%) beyond which the enhancement in the mass attenuation coefficient becomes negligible. Furthermore, statistical parameters of the developed correlations indicate that the correlations can accurately capture the behavior portrayed by the simulation data with acceptable root mean square error (RMSE) values.