Open AccessMonte Carlo simulation of a multi-leaf collimator design for telecobalt machine using BEAMnrc code
Author(s) -
KM Ayyangar,
Vishwajeet Kumar,
Pradeep Narayan,
F Jesuraj,
Raju Mr
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of medical physics/journal of medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.292
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1998-3913
pISSN - 0971-6203
DOI - 10.4103/0971-6203.58780
Subject(s) - collimator , monte carlo method , leakage (economics) , materials science , optics , cobalt 60 , computer science , physics , mathematics , nuclear physics , irradiation , statistics , economics , macroeconomics
This investigation aims to design a practical multi-leaf collimator (MLC) system for the cobalt teletherapy machine and check its radiation properties using the Monte Carlo (MC) method. The cobalt machine was modeled using the BEAMnrc Omega-Beam MC system, which could be freely downloaded from the website of the National Research Council (NRC), Canada. Comparison with standard depth dose data tables and the theoretically modeled beam showed good agreement within 2%. An MLC design with low melting point alloy (LMPA) was tested for leakage properties of leaves. The LMPA leaves with a width of 7 mm and height of 6 cm, with tongue and groove of size 2 mm wide by 4 cm height, produced only 4% extra leakage compared to 10 cm height tungsten leaves. With finite (60)Co source size, the interleaf leakage was insignificant. This analysis helped to design a prototype MLC as an accessory mount on a cobalt machine. The complete details of the simulation process and analysis of results are discussed.