Project DENIDIA:

A MCNP code as a tool for modelling

and simulation of gamma-ray
tomography

Volodymyr Mosorov
outgoing researcher at University of Bergen,
Norway
Computer Engineering Department
Technical University of Lodz
18/22 Stefanowskiego, 90-924 Lodz, Poland
[email protected]

February, 2009
Outline

1.Physical background of Radiation

measurement
1.Radioisotope gauges: modeling and
simulation
1.MCNP model of the UIB 85 channel
gamma ray tomograph

2
 Reminding

The Lambert-Beers Law is the simplification of

real world,
In practice a particle transport has a stochastic
nature,
One of the powerful method for simulations of
particle transport is Monte Carlo simulation

This is a topic of todays present class.....

3
Stochastic nature of photons transport
The main reason:
Different mechanisms
of Gamma-Ray
Interactions with matter
(see a previous class)

4
Monte Carlo Method vs.
Deterministic Method (e.g.
Lambert-Beers Law)

Deterministic methods solve the transport equation

for the average particle behavior.
Monte Carlo method obtains answers by simulating
individual particles. The average behaviour of
particles is then inferred from the average behaviour
of the simulated particles.
The Monte Carlo Method

Monte Carlo is used to simulate statistical processes theoretically

(like the interaction of nuclear particles with materials)
and is particularly useful for
complex problems that cannot be
modeled by computer codes that
use deterministic methods.
The individual probabilistic events
that comprise a process are
simulated sequentially.
Available software packages
for simulation radioactive particle
transport:

MCNP (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

EGS4 (http://slac.stanford.edu/egs)

Geant (http://geant4.web.cern.ch/geant4/)

7
MCNP
What is the MCNP?
MCNP is a general-purpose Monte Carlo N-Particle code
that can be used for neutron, photon, electron, or coupled
neutron/photon/electron transport.
What MCNP can do
radiation protection and dosimetry,
radiation shielding,
radiography,
medical physics,
nuclear criticality safety,
accelerator target design,
fission and fusion reactor design
etc.

8
From MCNP workshop
MCNP details:

Version:
4A ~1994

4B ~1997

4C1 ~2000

4C2 ~ fixed bugs

4C3 ~ minor fix MCNPX

5 ~ rewritten to include VisEd (400 person years

of development)
MCNP5 package

Distributed through RSICC (Radiation Safety Information

Computational Center) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory,
USA,
RSICC's mission is collection of computer code technologies
regarding radiation transport and safety to meet the needs of
the international community.
Code Contribution is not free

Current Director: Bernadette L. Kirk

11
MCNP5 package cd

Written in FORTRAN 90
Computer Platforms:

UNIX: Linux, HP, SGI, SUN, IBM

Windows/DOS
MCNP5 package
Advantages:
It is more accurate model of particle transport

Disadvantages:
very computationally extensive,
poor interface,
time-consuming

13
MCNP code concept
Place initial photons parameters on stack Y

Pick up energy, position, direction, geometry N

of current particle from top of the stack Is stack empty?

Photon energy Y
Terminate history
< cutoff?

N
Determine distance to next interaction
Transport photon taking into acount geometry

Has Y
photon left volume
of interest?

N
Determine type of interaction; Photoelectric,
Compton, Rayleigh, Pair production

Determine energies and directions of resultant

particles and store parameters on stack
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MCNP details:

MCNP is a 3-D Monte Carlo code capable of

tracking 34 particle type (including 4 light
ions)
Energy range:
Neutron: 0.01 MeV 20 MeV

Photon: 1 keV 100 GeV

Electron: 1 keV 1 GeV

 Related Codes:

VisEd: 2D graphics are included

Moritz: 3D does not include MCNP, takes files from

MCNP, visualizes geometry and particle tracks

MCODE: Couples MCNP to Origen for burnup

Monteburns: Couples MCNP to Origen for burnup

NJOY: Generates MCNP libraries

MCNP Basic Input

The basuc units used in MCNP are:

Lengths in centimeters
Energies in MeV
Times in sec
Temperatures in kT
Atomic densities in units of atoms/barn-cm
Mass densities in g/cm^3
Cross section in barns
Heat number in MeV/collision
Atomic weight ratio based on a neutron mass of
1.00866497 amu
MCNP Basic Input
Input file:
Prototype Cell card
Surface card
Data card
MCNP Cells

Cells are defined as volumes of space bounded by

surfaces
All of space must be defined
At least one cell will describe the problem
Repeated structure and lattice ability
Cell commands

Cells are basic geometry unit

Cartesian coordinate system
Surfaces are used to define space by combing
Sign defines surface sense (+ or -)

Three available operators

Interaction space
Union :
Complement #
Surface command

Example
r
be
m

ns
ic
nu

sio
on
ce

en
ne
fa

m
r

di
Su

J t params

Surf # Name Parameters

1 cz 20 $ infinite z cylinder with radius 20 cm

Surf # Name Parameters

1 so 11 $ sphere with radius 11 cm
$ equation: x2+y2+z2-r2=0
Surface sense

F(x,y,z)=S
Where
F is the function of surface
x,y,z are the coordinates of and arbitrary point
S sense of the point:
positive

zero (point is on the surface)

negative
Surface sense cd

point 1 Y
0+0+0-9 = -0 :
Sphere
negative sense R=3
point 2
0+36+0-9 = 27 : positive sense Point 1
Cell 1
Cell 1 (0,0,0)
Cell # Mat # Den Surface
1 3 1.65e-2 -1
Cell 2
Cell 2
Cell # Mat # Den Surface
2 3 1.65e-2 +1
Point 2 (0,-6,0)
Boolean Operator

Three available operators

Interaction space

Union - :

Complement - #
Intersection

Logical AND
Only space between Surface 2
BOTH criteria are true Surface 1

Cell # Mat # Den Surface

1 4 XXXX -1 +2 I III II
2 5 XXXX +1 -2
3 6 XXXX -1 -2
Intersection: example

Surface 4

Surface 1 Cell I Surface 2

y
Surface 3
x
Cell I
Surface Sense
Positive Negative
1 X
2 X
3 X
4 X
Boolean Union

Surface 2
Logical OR Surface 1
Cell # Mat # Den Surface
1 4 XXXX -1 : -2

Cell I
Boolean Union: Example
Surface 4

Surface 1 Cell I Surface 2

y
Cell II
Surface 3
x
Cell II
Surface Sense
Positive Negative
1 X
2 X
3 X
4 X
Complement Operator

Surface 4
# n means that the description of
the current cell is the complement Cell I Surface 2
Surface 1
of the description of cell n
Cell card y
Cell II
1 +1 -2 +3 -4 Surface 3
2 -1 : +2 : -3 : +4 x
Cell 2 also can be described as
2 #1
Summary of MCNP Cells
Cells are basic geometry unit
Cartesian coordinate system
Surfaces are used to define space
Sign defines surface sense (+ or -)

Boolean interaction, union, complement

parentheses control order of operations

At least one outside world cell
Data Cards

Class Mnemonic

Materials m
Importance imp
Source sdef
Tallies f
Problem cutoffs nps

Any card other than cells and surfaces goes to data cards
 Materials card

Mn ZAID1 fraction1 ZAID2 fraction2

ZAID = element or nuclide identifier : ZZZAAA
ZZZ = atomic number
AAA = atomic mass number
Example: 92235 (235U) 8016 (16O ) 29000 (natural Cu)
Fraction: positive = atomic fraction ZAIDi
negative = weight fraction of ZAIDi
Example: M1 07014 -0.767 08016 -0.233

All the available nuclei in MCNP can be found in the file:

xsdir
Importance card

Each cell must have an importance, used for variance

reduction
Importance of 0 will terminates particles, outside world cell
usually is 0
It can be in data card block,
Example

2 -0.132 -7:8:-9 imp:n=1

3 -1.235 1 2 3 imp:n=0
Source card

General sdef
Surface
User-supplied:
Energy

Time

Direction u v w

Position xyz
Particle type

Weight
SDEF Card

Example:
sdef ERG=D1 POS=x y z CEL=m RAD=D2 EXT=D3 AXS=I j k
SI1 H 0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10
SP1 10 0.1 0.01 1 15
SI2 r1
SI3 a

100
i,j,k
r1 10
Pr obabi l i t y

1
0. 1
a
0. 01
0. 001
x,y,z 0. 001 0. 01 0. 1 1 10
Cell m Ener gy( MeV)
Tally Card (detector)
MCNP execution

mcnp i=inp01 o=out01 [options]

File name Description
INP input file name
OUTP ASCII output file name

Option operation Default

I process input file *
P Plot geometry
X process x-section *
R particle transport *
Z plot tally results
plot cross section
MCNP Execution

Examples;
mcnp inp=test1 outp=test1o ip
mcnp i=test1 ixz
 Example

Problem description
40.64 cm

Calculate the 15.24cm 59.69cm

flux at point A, B
and C 13.97cm 2/3 LiCo3 1/3 paraffin

Source: 252Cf

located at 0, 0, 0. Point A 78.74 cm

graphite 45.72cm
Dimension:
30.48 cm
cylindrical
7.62 cm
rad=0.5, Point B y
Length = 2, Bismuth slab
Point C
13.97cm 2/3 LiCo3 1/3 paraffin
Axis=1 0 0 x
Visualisation

VisEd
Problem setup
Material surface cell data run
Useful link

MCNP manual (Included in MCNP disk)

MCNP user forum
[email protected]
MCNP notebook http://www-rsicc.ornl.gov/
Nuclear data used in MCNP
http://www-xdiv.lanl.gov/PROJECTS/DATA/nuclear/nuclear.html
Dzikuj za uwag,
Thank you for your attention,
Takk for oppmerksomhet,
Merci pour attention,
Bti dkingam