Investigations of some building materials for g-rays shielding effectiveness Kulwinder Singh Mann a,n,1 , Baljit Kaur b , Gurdeep Singh Sidhu c , Ajay Kumar d a Department of Physics, Dravidian University, Kuppam, AP 517425, India b Department of Physics, G.S.S.School, Goniana-Mandi, Bathinda 151003, India c Department of Physics, G.S.S.S., Jodhpur-Romana, Bathinda, India d Department of Physics, D.A.V. College, Amritsar, India HIGHLIGHTS c Shielding effectiveness is useful in selecting of g-rays safe building materials. c Mass attenuation coefficients related directly to shielding effectiveness. c HVL correctly determines the shielding effectiveness of a material. c Common brick shows the best shielding effectiveness from the selected samples. article info Article history: Received 5 April 2012 Accepted 5 February 2013 Available online 22 February 2013 Keywords: Shielding effectiveness Mass energy absorption coefficients KERMA Bricks abstract For construction of residential and non-residential buildings bricks are used as building blocks. Bricks are made from mixtures of sand, clay, cement, fly ash, gypsum, red mud and lime. Shielding effectiveness of five soil samples and two fly ash samples have been investigated using some energy absorption parameters (Mass attenuation coefficients, mass energy absorption coefficients, KERMA (kinetic energy released per unit mass), HVL, equivalent atomic number and electron densities) firstly at 14 different energies from 81–1332 keV then extended to wide energy range 0.015–15 MeV. The soil sample with maximum shielding effectiveness has been used for making eight fly ash bricks [(Lime) 0.15 (Gypsum) 0.05 (Fly Ash) x (Soil) 0.8x , where values of x are from 0.4–0.7]. High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector has been used for gamma-ray spectroscopy. The elemental compositions of samples were analysed using an energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometer. The agreements of theoretical and experimental values of mass attenuation coefficient have been found to be quite satisfactory. It has been verified that common brick possess the maximum shielding effectiveness for wide energy range 0.015–15 MeV. The results have been shown graphically with some useful conclusions for making radiation safe buildings. & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Bricks are standard structural element of building construc- tion, the study on their shielding effectiveness against gamma rays is ambitious and worthy of research. The shielding properties of a brick depend on its ingredients. The mixtures of clay and sand moulded in various ways, dried and burnt to make bricks. Clay for brick making must develop proper plasticity and be capable of drying rapidly without excessive shrinkage, warping or cracking and of being burnt to desired texture and strength (Faith and Umit, 2001). For waste management some innovative have manufactured environment friendly building materials utilising fly ash such as; clay fly ash bricks, fly ash bricks, road construction material and cellular light weight concrete etc. (Christy and Tensing, 2011). The innovative bricks using the residual fly ash are considered high quality building materials by the manufac- turers that will potentially decrease some of the negative envi- ronmental impact of coal-fired power generation while meeting increasing demands for greener building materials (Building Materials in India: 50 Years—A Commemorative Volume, 1998). Exposure to gamma radiations poses a great risk to human health electronic devices (Salinas et al., 2006; Singh et al., 2009). The application of the gamma rays in several fields, such as nuclear and radiation physics, industry, medicine, environment, energy production, radiation dosimetry, biology and agriculture is increasing rapidly. Lead is used as conventional shielding material for these Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/radphyschem Radiation Physics and Chemistry 0969-806X/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.radphyschem.2013.02.012 n Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 9417325696; fax: þ91 1642214666. E-mail addresses: ksmann6268@gmail.com, kulwindermann@hotmail.com (K.S. Mann). 1 Postal address: Department of Physics, D.A.V. College, Bathinda 151001, India. Radiation Physics and Chemistry 87 (2013) 16–25