Partial and total mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic number and effective electron number of different Maraging steel compositions

The total and partial mass attenuation coefficients for different Maraging steel compositions have been determined by using the WinXCom and MCNP5 programs. The effective atomic number, Zeff, and effective electron number, Neff, for the studied steels have been determined via the total mass attenuation coefficients μ/ρ, the total atomic and electronic cross sections (σa and σe) of the investigated steels. The shielding parameters μ/ρ, Zeff, and Neff have been calculated at the incident photon energy range of 1 keV–100 MeV. The calculated results of total and partial mass attenuation coefficients, the effective atomic number and the effective electron number by using MCNP5 program were found to be in good agreement with the theoretical results of the WinXCom program. The calculated data clarify that the different steel compositions under investigation have so far the same ability of gamma attenuation. Also, it was found that the total mass attenuation coefficients of the different investigated steels (cobalt free-Maraging steels) are comparable to the C250 standard steel (cobalt Maraging steel). Key words: Gamma rays, shielding, mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic number, effective electron number.