Reproduction of heavy-ion irradiation effect on organic polymers using radiation transport simulation code

Ogawa, Tatsuhiko   ; Yamaki, Tetsuya*; Sato, Tatsuhiko   

Modification of materials by irradiation, which is substantially important for radiation safety in facilities and industrial applications, is studied from various aspects. Material modification is induced by local energy deposition by incident radiation followed by the changes of chemical bonds in the spatial scale of nm to m. So far, absorbed dose was regarded as the best index of irradiation effects, however, it is also known that irradiation effects varies depending on the radiation species even under the same absorbed dose or LET. Radiation transport simulation code PHITS can calculate simulate energy deposition in nm to m scale to obtain LET and specific energy deposition (SED). By using SED calculation function, an attempt to reproduce radiation species dependence of material property change based on the theoretical prediction of chemical reactions induced by energy deposition in different irradiation conditions. Estimate on the decrease in Elongation at Break (EB) of poly-ether sulfone in three different irradiation conditions, 10 MeV protons, 50 MeV He and C showed that reduction of EB by carbon ions is twice as small as that by proton and that by helium for the same absorbed dose, which is in an agreement with experiment. Moreover, assuming that scission of polymer takes place at random and 100 eV energy deposition in the region result in loss of mechanical strength, saturating trend of EB reduction.