Accuracy of Phy-X/PSD Software Compared to XCOM in the Determination of Mass Attenuation Coefficient of Glass Systems

Abstract

Phy-X/PSD and XCOM are two software programs used for computations in radiation shielding and nuclear energy research. This study aims to compare the accuracy of Phy-X/PSD with that of XCOM in the determination of mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) of glass systems. The MAC values of 60B₂O₃-(40-x)BaO-xBi₂O₃, 50BaO-xBi₂O₃-(50-x)borosilicate glasses, and xTeO₂-(70-x)ZnF₂-25AsO₃-5Sm₂O₃ glass systems at 0.662 MeV, 1.172 MeV and 1.332 MeV were determined using Phy-X/PSD. The mean absolute error (MAE) was determined and compared with MAE from experimental data and from XCOM. The results showed no significant difference between the MAC means obtained from the three data sets. However, single factor ANOVA test shows that the p-values for the MAC means are 0.344, 0.918 and 0.239 approximated to 3 d.p at 0.662 MeV, 1.172 MeV, and 1.332 MeV respectively and the variance was highest in the experimental result, followed by Phy-X/PSD, and least in the XCOM results. It could be concluded that both software programs can be used for radiation shielding computations, although result from Phy-X/PSD may have relatively more outliers compared to XCOM.