Investigation on the physical properties, shielding parameters, glass formation ability, and cost analysis for waste soda-lime-silica (SLS) glass containing SrO

Radiation protection has become more popular thanks to the growing interest in applications using higher energies. Glass materials have been extensively investigated for radiation shielding purposes. In the present study, the usability of waste soda-lime-silica (SLS) glass containing varying amounts of SrO was explored for shielding material. Physical properties such as average molecular weight (AMW), density (rho), molar volume (Vm), molar oxygen volume (Vo), and oxygen packaging density (OPD) of seven different glass systems (0, Sr1 to Sr6) were determined. The radiation shielding parameters, mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), and half-value layer (HVL) were computed in the photon energy range of 0.015 to 15 MeV via the newly developed Phy-X/PSD software. Further, the calculated HVL thicknesses were compared with some concrete materials and commercially available radiation shielding glasses. Additionally, the assessment of glass properties via the BatchMaker software paved the way for a broader perspective regarding the glass systems. More importantly, a cost analysis was performed to point out the feasibility of the glass systems. The results showed that the sampleSr6 having the highest content of SrO (15 wt%) provided higher MAC and lower HVL values while achieving a better glass formation ability and low production costs.