RSICC CODE PACKAGE CCC-742

 

1.  NAME AND TITLE

GES_MC: Gamma-electron Efficiency Simulator, Version 3.1.

 

2.  CONTRIBUTORS

Radiation Department, Institute of Public Health, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

 

3.  CODING LANGUAGE AND COMPUTER

Java; Pentium (C00742PC58600).

 

4.  NATURE OF PROBLEM SOLVED

GES_MC (Gamma-electron Efficiency Simulator Monte Carlo) is written entirely in Java and is based on the EGSnrc (Electron Gamma Shower) source code. Although GES_MC is especially designed for the computation of the response function and peak efficiency for gamma detectors, it can also be used in various studies concerning photon or electron interactions with the matter in any cylindrical (RZ) geometry. This application is mainly designed for computation of detector peak efficiency and detector total efficiency (whole spectrum) involved in gamma spectrometry. It can also compute detector efficiency for beta radiation (electrons and positrons), absorbed dose and kerma in any cylindrical (RZ) geometry, attenuation and scatter fraction of radiation in detector walls; and it can be used also for some radiological applications such as the evaluation of scattered X radiation (secondary radiation) at a user-defined distance from the patient. GES_MC is based on the radiation transport theory and algorithms (routines taken from EGSnrc software) developed by SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center , USA) and NRC (National Research Council, Canada ). The original EGSnrc system of computer codes is a general purpose package for the Monte Carlo simulation of the coupled transport of electrons and photons in an arbitrary geometry for particles with energies above a few keV up to several hundreds of GeV. See the GES_MC developers’ website for additional information http://tensp.academic.ro/download/fulea/.

 

5.  METHOD OF SOLUTION

GES_MC is a general-purpose Monte Carlo code system capable of handling any cylindrical geometry.

 

6.  RESTRICTIONS OR LIMITATIONS

The main disadvantage of the Monte Carlo simulation technique is its strong dependency on geometrical dimensions. For good efficiency results, both sample and detector geometry must be very well known.

 

7.  TYPICAL RUNNING TIME

Simulation time can vary from several seconds to several minutes.

 

8.  COMPUTER HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

This code system was developed on personal computers.

 

9.  COMPUTER SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

GES_MC was tested at RSICC on Pentium IV with 512MB memory under the Microsoft® Windows XP™ and Vista™ operating systems.

 

10. REFERENCES

a.   included in documentation:

               D. C. Fulea, “Java Implementation of EGSnrc,” (2006).

b:   background information:

I. Kawrakow and D. W. O. Rogers, “The EGSnrc Code System,” NRCC Report PIRS-701 (Nov. 7, 2003).

W. R. Nelson, H. Hirayama and D. W. O. Rogers, “The EGS4 Code System,” SLAC-265 (December 1985).

D. Fulea and C. Cosma, “Monte Carlo sampling for gamma and beta detectors using a general purpose PC program,” to be published in Radiation Measurements Journal.

 

11. CONTENTS OF CODE PACKAGE

The package is distributed as a self-installing Windows executable on CD-ROM.

 

12. DATE OF ABSTRACT

July 2008.

 

KEYWORDS:      ELECTRON; GAMMA-RAY; MONTE CARLO; X-RAY