Coconut Dust Gypsums Board Building Material for Shielding Radiation and Buildup Factors

The coconut dust gypsums were fabricated and investigated through shielding radiation properties, energy absorption buildup factor (EABF), and exposure buildup factor (EBF). The mass attenuation coefficient (mm) was investigated by using the Compton scattering technique at energy 662 keV and theoretical values of the mass attenuation coefficients were computed by using the WinXCom software program at different photon energies from 1 keV - 100 GeV. EABF and EBF values were computed by the Geometric Progression (G-P) fitting method at photon energies ranging between 0.015 and 15 MeV up to deep penetration of 40 mean free path (mfp). After the addition of coconut dust volume into gypsum board, it was found that mm values of the experiment and theory were generally in a good agreement. The results also indicated that the mm increased while the EABF and EBF decreased along with the increase in the coconut dust volume. The EABF and EBF values with photon energy and deep penetration for coconut dust gypsums were found at a minimum value, i.e., at low and high energy range whereas, at the intermediate energy range, it could become high. These results suggest that coconut dust gypsums can be used as shielding radiation building material.