Abstract
The present study was conducted to investigate the attenuation properties of building materials commonly used. The mass attenuation coefficients, linear attenuation coefficients, mean free path and half thickness of building materials with densities ranged from 1.52 to 2.58 g. cm(-3), have been simulated by Monte Carlo simulation techniques at 59.5, 356, 662, 1173, 1274 and 1333 KeV. For validation purpose, the numerical simulation results have been compared with experimental results. Comparisons are also made with predictions from the XCOM program in the energy region from 1 KeV to 20 MeV. A good agreement between the experimental data and MCNP simulated results as well as XCOM calculated results. Linear attenuation coefficient and half thickness of the samples are found density and photon energy dependent. The half thickness values of the sample materials increase with increasing in photon energy. Also, this study proved that the MCNP simulation can be employed for the determination of different attenuation properties when no experimental values are available.