Investigation of the textile reinforcements and their composites for ionizing radiation shielding

Ionizing radiation is known as high energy radiation and people are exposed to this radiation through both natural and artificial ways. It is the fact that; ionizing radiation has negative effects on human health and people feel the need to be protected/shielded from ionizing radiation. With the aim of shielding against radiation, materials made of or including lead are often used. However, lead materials have toxic effect on human health, are not environmental friendly and resultant material weights are also quite high. Therefore, studies are carried out in which composite materials are developed as lightweight, non toxic materials with good mechanical properties and shielding as high as lead materials. In this research, it is aimed to develop a textile reinforced composite material, which shields against ionizing radiation and has good mechanical properties. It is targeted to provide radiation shielding and mechanical properties by designing and manufacturing knitted fabrics with different structures. For this purpose, knitted fabrics with three different structures are manufactured by using glass and copper filaments. Three different types of composites are manufactured by using the knitted fabrics as reinforcements. In order to evaluate the mechanical properties of the composite material, bending and impact tests were performed with the approach that the composites may encounter in the intended application areas. Knitted fabric reinforced composites are exposed to gamma radiation; linear and mass attenuation coefficients and half value thickness values are determined and attenuation performances of gamma radiation are evaluated. The results obtained are expected to guide future research in this area in terms of material and structure selection.