Monte Carlo Estimation of Mass Energy Absorption Coefficients of Some Biological Compounds

This study aims to compute total mass energy absorption coefficients of thirteen biological samples found in human body using the Monte Carlo method. The simulations were carried out using MCNP radiation transport software and utilized rectangular parallelepiped shaped absorbers upon which a point source emitted mono-energetic and parallel beam of photons. All the components in the problem geometry were surrounded by a vacuum sphere (r=100 cm) to avoid any interactions in materials other than the sample. The simulations were performed for twenty-eight photon energies in 10 keV-20 MeV energy range and µen/ρ results were compared with data from NIST compilations which indicated very good agreement. This method can be used for calculations of mass energy absorption coefficients for materials or energies where data are not available in literature.