Synergetic static and radiation shielding characteristics of non-conventional concrete mixtures.

Concrete is extensively utilized in various applications related to radiation shielding, including nuclear power facilities, radiation shelters, high-voltage radiotherapy rooms, and for the transportation and storage of radioactive waste. Thus, this study developed eleven different concrete mixtures to evaluate their applicability for such critical applications. The control concrete mixture (NC) was made with typical concrete ingredients. Then, a (GC) specimen was made by fully substituting conventional dolomite with goethite aggregate. Thereafter, various concrete mixtures (GL, GR, and GT) were developed to determine the optimal replacement percentage of silica sand with leucoxene, rutile, and tourmaline powders, at replacement percentages of 10%, 20%, and 30%. The optimized results were drawn based on the mechanical and radiation shielding properties of concrete. The results indicated that the goethite concrete mixture exhibited acceptable compressive strength with negligible reduction relative to that of normal concrete. At the same time, all fine powders' concrete demonstrated a general decrease in compressive strength by up to 41.95%. The incorporation of the materials. Radiation-shielding properties were assessed through experimental and computational analyses. The effective atomic number (Z