Abstract
The investigation of broad-beam gamma attenuation by thin sections of steel, aluminum, and glass was undertaken because of a dearth of such data on these important structural materials. Evaluating the shielding capabilities of automobiles and modern buildings requires knowledge about the broad-beam attenuation of gamma radiation under the conditions of these experiments. For calculations of broad-beam gamma attenuation by thin sections of steel, assuming exponential attenuation (B n = 1.0) will not cause serious error (<10%). The buildup factors for the thin sections of aluminum and glass varied exponentially with the thickness; i.e., B n = e kx, where k was constant over the range of experiments (∼0.317 for the aluminum and glass).