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An enhanced HOWFARLESS option for DOSXYZnrc simulations of slab geometries
Author(s) -
Babcock Kerry,
CranmerSargison Gavin,
Sidhu Narinder
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.2968094
Subject(s) - slab , monte carlo method , computational physics , variance reduction , cartesian coordinate system , homogeneous , materials science , optics , physics , chemistry , molecular physics , statistical physics , geometry , mathematics , statistics , geophysics
The Monte Carlo code DOSXYZnrc is a valuable instrument for calculating absorbed dose within a three‐dimensional Cartesian geometry. DOSXYZnrc includes several variance reduction techniques used to increase the efficiency of the Monte Carlo calculation. One such technique is HOWFARLESS which is used to increase the efficiency of beam commissioning calculations in homogeneous phantoms. The authors present an enhanced version of HOWFARLESS which extends the application to include phantoms inhomogeneous in one dimension. When the enhanced HOWFARLESS was used, efficiency increases as high as 14 times were observed without any loss in dose accuracy. The efficiency gains of an enhanced HOWFARLESS simulation was found to be dependent on both slab geometry and slab density. As the number of two‐dimensional voxel layers per slab increases, so does the efficiency gain. Also, as the mass density of a slab is decreased, the efficiency gains increase.