Determination of moisture content, mass attenuation coefficient and density of Oak and Mango wood using gamma radiations.
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Date
2019
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
Due to the availability and particular features, wood is one of the first materials used by mankind with a wide variety of applications. Changes in moisture content lead to changes of virtually all physical and mechanical properties (e.g. shrinkage or swelling, strength and stiffness properties) of wood. The present study deals with the determination of mass attenuation coefficient of Oak(Grevillea robusta) and Mango(Mangifera indica) wood samples as it varies across material thickness and at varying moisture levels using gamma ray transmission method. NaI(Tl) scintillation detector and a radioactive source 137Cs of energy 0.662 MeV was used. Wood samples were placed in an oven for fixed durations to vary moisture levels. Logarithmic relative transmitted intensities were plotted against the thickness of wood samples and mass attenuation coefficients were obtained from the slopes of plots at different moisture levels. The obtained mass attenuation coefficients were plotted against the relative moisture content of wood samples and it is obtained that attenuation varies with decreasing moisture content i.e., the mass attenuation coefficient was minimum for completely wet state and maximum for oven dry state of the samples. Wood density is also a vital parameter giving knowledge about anatomical and physical properties of wood. Wood densities were also measured for these wood samples by using conventional, oven dry and nuclear method. Owing to the fact that the shielding capacity of wood samples can be determined easily, wood can be used as shielding material from radiation.
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