A study on radiation shielding properties, secondary radiation and radiation damage for composites containing glass fiber/PEEK/gadolinium oxide

This study aimed to determine the gamma and neutron shielding capacities, the number of secondary gamma and neutrons produced after the primary neutron interaction together with their average energies and the damage caused by the incident gamma and neutron radiation on the composite for the composites containing glass fiber, PEEK and gadolinium oxide (Gd₂O₃). The theoretical approaches and/or simulation codes such as GEEANT4/FLUKA were used to determine these properties. It was observed that the gamma shielding capacity was improved for the studied composites with increasing Gd₂O₃ content. It was determined that the composite containing 50 % Gd₂O₃ (50GF50GdO), which was the highest studied amount, was superior to the others. The same composite also exhibited superior performance in removing fast neutrons. In addition, this composite has a fast neutron removal capacity that is 0.79 times higher than paraffin and 1.77 times higher than ordinary concrete. In terms of neutron shielding, the composite containing 50 % PEEK showed better performance at low energies, while 50GF50GdO replaced with this composite at high energies. It was determined that the composite coded as 50GF50GdO was less risky than the other composites in terms of both secondary gamma and secondary neutron formation. Finally, it was observed that as the energy of both gamma and neutron radiation increased, the studied composites were exposed to more radiation damage.