Ant colony optimization of shielding for mixed neutron and gamma radiations

Shielding is important in maintaining safe levels of radiation. In mixed neutrons and gamma-rays condition, more than one material are needed for shielding purposes. These materials can be arranged into a multilayer shield or they can be mixed into a composite shield. These shields have different va...

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Main Author:	Azali, Muhammad Arif
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2020
Subjects:	TP Chemical technology
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/92429/1/MuhammadArifPMSChE2020.pdf.pdf
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id	my-utm-ep.92429
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spelling	my-utm-ep.924292021-09-28T07:34:30Z Ant colony optimization of shielding for mixed neutron and gamma radiations 2020 Azali, Muhammad Arif TP Chemical technology Shielding is important in maintaining safe levels of radiation. In mixed neutrons and gamma-rays condition, more than one material are needed for shielding purposes. These materials can be arranged into a multilayer shield or they can be mixed into a composite shield. These shields have different variables and it can be increasingly complex to optimise them. In such a situation, using brute method is infeasible in terms of computation time. Recent studies have been looking into the use of metaheuristics in shield optimisation specifically the genetic algorithm (GA). This study extends the knowledge by investigating the ant colony optimisation (ACO) for shielding optimisation against mixed radiation. Three objectives were outlined: to develop an ACO-based algorithm to optimise a shield made from polyethylene (PE), boron, and tungsten, to build a GA as a comparison, and to evaluate the new shield design. MCNP5 was used for shielding calculations. There were four problem cases: a composite shield with known solution (Case 1); a composite shield with unknown solution (Case 1.2); a multilayer shield with known solution (Case 2); and a multilayer shield with unknown solution (Case 2.2). Six ACO parameters and four GA parameters were tested to observe their effects and to determine their best values for the optimisation algorithms. Four composite shields were fabricated and experimented with a 252Cf mixed neutron-gamma source. It was observed that the ACO-MCNP algorithm was significantly better than the brute method. It managed to find the exact solutions for Case 1 and Case 2 while reducing the runtime of the brute method by 81.75% and 89.01% respectively. For Case 1.2 and Case 2.2, good solutions were achieved in only 2.13 hours and 1.28 hours respectively as compared to the brute method which could take almost 70 hours to complete. The results also suggest that the ACO is a good alternative to the GA for shielding optimisation. For the experimental work, it was found that the PE composite with additives of 16 wt% boron and 16 wt% tungsten had the best mixed radiation shielding performance as compared to pure polyethylene, poly-boron (25 wt%), and poly-tungsten (25 wt%). 2020 Thesis http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/92429/ http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/92429/1/MuhammadArifPMSChE2020.pdf.pdf application/pdf en public http://dms.library.utm.my:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:139300 phd doctoral Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Faculty of Engineering - School of Chemical & Energy Engineering
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
collection	UTM Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	TP Chemical technology
spellingShingle	TP Chemical technology Azali, Muhammad Arif Ant colony optimization of shielding for mixed neutron and gamma radiations
description	Shielding is important in maintaining safe levels of radiation. In mixed neutrons and gamma-rays condition, more than one material are needed for shielding purposes. These materials can be arranged into a multilayer shield or they can be mixed into a composite shield. These shields have different variables and it can be increasingly complex to optimise them. In such a situation, using brute method is infeasible in terms of computation time. Recent studies have been looking into the use of metaheuristics in shield optimisation specifically the genetic algorithm (GA). This study extends the knowledge by investigating the ant colony optimisation (ACO) for shielding optimisation against mixed radiation. Three objectives were outlined: to develop an ACO-based algorithm to optimise a shield made from polyethylene (PE), boron, and tungsten, to build a GA as a comparison, and to evaluate the new shield design. MCNP5 was used for shielding calculations. There were four problem cases: a composite shield with known solution (Case 1); a composite shield with unknown solution (Case 1.2); a multilayer shield with known solution (Case 2); and a multilayer shield with unknown solution (Case 2.2). Six ACO parameters and four GA parameters were tested to observe their effects and to determine their best values for the optimisation algorithms. Four composite shields were fabricated and experimented with a 252Cf mixed neutron-gamma source. It was observed that the ACO-MCNP algorithm was significantly better than the brute method. It managed to find the exact solutions for Case 1 and Case 2 while reducing the runtime of the brute method by 81.75% and 89.01% respectively. For Case 1.2 and Case 2.2, good solutions were achieved in only 2.13 hours and 1.28 hours respectively as compared to the brute method which could take almost 70 hours to complete. The results also suggest that the ACO is a good alternative to the GA for shielding optimisation. For the experimental work, it was found that the PE composite with additives of 16 wt% boron and 16 wt% tungsten had the best mixed radiation shielding performance as compared to pure polyethylene, poly-boron (25 wt%), and poly-tungsten (25 wt%).
format	Thesis
qualification_name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Azali, Muhammad Arif
author_facet	Azali, Muhammad Arif
author_sort	Azali, Muhammad Arif
title	Ant colony optimization of shielding for mixed neutron and gamma radiations
title_short	Ant colony optimization of shielding for mixed neutron and gamma radiations
title_full	Ant colony optimization of shielding for mixed neutron and gamma radiations
title_fullStr	Ant colony optimization of shielding for mixed neutron and gamma radiations
title_full_unstemmed	Ant colony optimization of shielding for mixed neutron and gamma radiations
title_sort	ant colony optimization of shielding for mixed neutron and gamma radiations
granting_institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
granting_department	Faculty of Engineering - School of Chemical & Energy Engineering
publishDate	2020
url	http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/92429/1/MuhammadArifPMSChE2020.pdf.pdf
_version_	1747818597831409664

Ant colony optimization of shielding for mixed neutron and gamma radiations

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