Determination of total mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic numbers and electron densities for different shielding materials

Abstract In this paper, the interaction of gamma rays with some shielding materials has been studied. The total mass attenuation coefficient ( μ t ) for eight shielding materials has been calculated by using WinXCOM program in the energy range from 1 keV to 100 GeV. Also, the effective atomic number ( Z eff ) and the effective electron density ( N eff ) were calculated using the values of the total mass attenuation coefficient. The dependence of these parameters on the incident photon energy and the chemical composition has been examined.