A comparative study of shielding effectiveness of fly ash bricks of different composition

Fly ash is a byproduct of coal based thermal power plants. In recent years fly ash has been investigated as a structural material. It is known to improve or maintain the quality of established construction materials like cement, concrete, mortar or brick. It can reduce cost and increase environmental friendliness of construction projects. Further such materials when used in the construction of nuclear facilities need to be investigated in detail for their radioactivity, radiation attenuation effectiveness for different types of radiation, prompt and delayed secondary radiation production etc. In the present study fly ash bricks of different compositions have been investigated for their gamma ray attenuation effectiveness with respect to effective atomic number (Zeff) and effective electron number density (Neff) using the atomic and electronic cross-section for gamma ray interaction