A Research on the Gamma Radiation Shielding Effectiveness of Diced Woven Fabrics

Lead aprons are used for personal protection of physicians and patients from X-ray (gamma) radiation during medical operations, though lead has environmental disadvantages, with high toxicity. Therefore, the aim of this research was to produce an environmentally friendly and flexible textile-based radiation shielding material. In this work, 1/3 twill and certain diced woven fabrics were manufactured with conductive core yarns, and gamma radiation shielding effectiveness of these diced woven fabrics were investigated and compared with that of the 1/3 twill woven fabric, which are commonly used as uniforms and were not studied previously in the literature. The effects of fabric structural characteristics such as weave, fabric thickness, porosity and conductive weft yarn density on these properties were analyzed by the physics of gamma radiation shielding and statistics. Experimental results are compatible with the physics of gamma radiation shielding. It is observed that with indenting and protruding structure diced woven fabrics performed better gamma radiation shielding performance than the 1/3 twill woven fabrics did. The samples E1 and B1, woven with diced weave 4 and 1, have the highest gamma radiation shielding effectiveness, thanks to the highest fabric thickness and to the lowest porosity. In addition, the increases of conductive core yarn density improved these gamma radiation shielding effectiveness of woven fabrics