Gamma Radiation Shielding and Thermal Performance of Concrete with Coconut Shell Ash Replacement

This research assessed the influence of replacing cement with coconut shell ash (CSA) on radiation shielding ability of a concrete using Nist XCOM, Phy-X, and Geant4. Four concrete C1, C2, C3, and C4 were prepared with water-to-cement (W/C) ratio of 0.6 throughout the mixes. The densities of the resulting concretes were altered (2.40 g/cm3 to 2.20 g/cm3) as the CSA content raises from 0.00 kg to 0.15 kg. More so, adding CSA to the concrete matrix, resulted in variation of linear attenuation coefficients (LAC) (0.195 cm-1 for C1, 0.18 cm-1 for C2, 0.183 cm-1 for C3, and 0.177 cm-1 for C4) of the resulting composite at 0.662 MeV. Based on this study, it was observed that samples C4 reduces the incoming photons better than C2, C3, and C1 at lower energy level (0.015 MeV to 0.04 MeV), while samples C1 reduces the incoming photons better than C2, C3, and C4 at higher energy level (0.04 MeV to 15 MeV). The thermal performance of the resulting concrete C2, C3, and C1 were improved when compared with sample C4. Therefore, concrete samples C2, C3, and C1 is the most effective for radiation shielding for their resistance to thermal threats.