Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2021) 136: 890
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-021-01885-z

Regular Article

Radiological and gamma-ray shielding parameters of cement raw materials samples used in Yemen

¹ Physics Department, Faculty of Science, University of Aden, Aden, Yemen
² Department of Physics, Faculty of Education Yafea, University of Aden, Aden, Yemen
³ Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

^a eesas2009@yahoo.com

Received: 7 April 2021
Accepted: 19 August 2021
Published online: 30 August 2021

Abstract

The natural radioactivity of 16 cement raw materials samples from Yemen was determined. The average activity concentrations of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K were 32, 18 and 239 Bq.kg⁻¹ in limestone samples, 43, 35 and 1081 Bq.kg⁻¹ in clay samples, 40, 36 and 840 Bq.kg⁻¹ in sandstone samples, 29, 11 and 161 Bq.kg⁻¹ in iron ore samples, 29, 17 and 166 Bq.kg⁻¹ in raw gypsum samples and 48, 23 and 690 Bq.kg⁻¹ in pozzolana samples, respectively. The results indicated that the highest radionuclides concentrations for measured samples were in clay samples, whereas the lowest values were in iron ore samples. Radiological parameters such as external hazard index (H_ex), radium equivalent (Ra_eq), internal hazard index (H_in) and gamma index (I_ϒ) were assessed. Moreover, the chemical composition of these raw materials was measured and simulated for their gamma-ray shielding properties. Radiation protection coefficients such as mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), atomic cross section (AC), electron cross section (EC), effective atomic number (Z_eff) and electron density (N_eff) have been estimated in the photon energy range from 0.015 to 15 MeV using Phy-X/PSD software program. The results indicated that the highest values of the gamma-ray shielding parameters were at the energy 0.015 MeV, while the lower values were at the energy 15 MeV. Also, the results indicated that the iron ore sample has the best gamma-ray shielding properties among other investigated raw materials.