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| Program name | Package id | Status | Status date |
|---|---|---|---|
| PENELOPE2023 | NEA-1525/24 | Tested | 12-SEP-2024 |
Machines used:
| Package ID | Orig. computer | Test computer |
|---|---|---|
| NEA-1525/24 | Linux-based PC,PC Windows,UNIX W.S. | Gitlab |
PENELOPE performs Monte Carlo simulation of coupled electron-photon transport in arbitrary materials and complex quadric geometries. A mixed procedure is used for the simulation of electron and positron interactions (elastic scattering, inelastic scattering and bremsstrahlung emission) in which 'hard' events (i.e. those with deflection angle and/or energy loss larger than pre-selected cut-offs) are simulated in a detailed way, while 'soft' interactions are calculated from multiple scattering approaches. Photon interactions (Rayleigh scattering, Compton scattering, photoelectric effect and electron-positron pair production) and positron annihilation are simulated in a detailed way, event by event.
Improvements in the 2023 version compared to version 2018.
The version 2023 of the PENELOPE code system keeps the physics of the 2018 version (material data files are the same in the two versions). The introduced changes and additions, which only affected the versatility and operation of the code, are the following:
The PENGEOM geometry package has been extended to allow the inclusion of a voxelized module analogous to a computed tomography (CT) scan, with predefined position and orientation. The geometry viewers GVIEW2D and GVIEW3D have been modified to display the structure of the CT module, and to verify the consistency of the geometry definition.
The main program PENMAIN has been modified so that, when the geometry contains a CT module, particles are efficiently transported through the voxelized structure. In addition, the program calculates the average absorbed dose in each voxel, and it produces various files describing the calculated dose distribution in the CT box.
Tools allowing to run simultaneous multiple instances of a PENMAIN, or a PENCYL, simulation, and to combine the partial results from the various runs into a single set of output files, have been developed and included in the distribution package. The multiple runs are prepared and initiated by means of a batch script named 'MultiRun.bat' (specific of Microsoft Windows, but easily adaptable to other operating systems) and the partial results are combined by running the program 'penmain-sum.f', or 'pencyl-sum.f'.
The tracking of electrons and positrons in static electromagnetic fields has been improved by using a Runge-Kutta integrator to determine each segment of the trajectory of a charged particle under the action of the electromagnetic, soft-stopping, and radiation-emission forces.
An inconsistency in the implementation of the Woodcock method for photons, which affected the package penvared.f and the main programs pencyl.f and penmain.f, has been identified and corrected. The initialization subroutine JUMPW0 has been moved to the calling programs.
The manual has been adapted to the current version of the code.
The program can track electrons, positrons, and photons with kinetic energies in the range from 50 eV to 1 GeV. However, the adopted interaction models are not expected to be accurate for energies below about 1 keV. X rays and Auger electrons originating from vacancies in the outer (O, P, …) subshells of heavy elements are not followed. Photo-nuclear reactions are disregarded.
The running time largely depends on the number of histories to be simulated, the kind of incident particle, its initial energy and the considered geometry. The adopted simulation parameters (energy cut-offs, etc.) also influence the computing time. For instance, when running the example 3-plane on an Intel Core i7-10700 CPU at 2.90 GHz with 16 GB RAM, PENMAIN simulates 1 million histories in about 180 seconds.
The mixed simulation algorithm for electrons and positrons implemented in PENELOPE reproduces the actual transport process to a high degree of accuracy and is very stable even at high energies. This is partly due to the use of a sophisticated transport mechanics model for charged particles based on the so-called random hinge method. Other differentiating features of the simulation are a consistent description of angular deflections in inelastic collisions and of energy-loss straggling in soft stopping events. Binding effects and Doppler broadening in Compton scattering are also taken into account.
They are helpful but not essential: 1) PenGeomJar; definition and debugging of quadric geometries by means of a Java graphical user interface (GUI). A previous version of the program has been adapted to the version 2023 of PENELOPE. 2) PenGUIn; a GUI for running simulations with PENELOPE/PENMAIN. It largely simplifies the operation of the codes, although it only runs under Windows.
J. Sempau, E. Acosta, J. Baro, J.M. Fernandez-Varea and F.Salvat: An algorithm for Monte Carlo simulation of the coupled electron-photon transport. Nuclear Instruments and Methods B 132 (1997) 377-390.
J. Sempau, J.M. Fernandez-Varea, E. Acosta and F. Salvat: Experimental benchmarks of the Monte Carlo code PENELOPE. Nuclear Instruments and Methods B 207 (2003) 107-123.
Francesc Salvat: “PENELOPE-2018: A code System for Monte Carlo Simulation of Electron and Photon Transport” (OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, document NEA/MBDAV/R(2019)1, Boulogne-Billancourt, France, 2019). Available from https://doi.org/10.1787/32da5043-en
There are no specific requirements for the PENELOPE kernel.
Tested at the NEA Data Bank on:
WINDOWS:
COMPUTER: Dell Precision with Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-7600U CPU at 2.80 GHz, RAM: 16.0 GB
OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10
LINUX:
COMPUTER: Dell Precision M6800 with Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-4800MQ CPU at 2.70 GHz x 8, RAM: 16.0 GB
OPERATING SYSTEM: Ubuntu 22.04
OTHER: GitLab source repository located at https://git.oecd-nea.org/penelope/package/pensuite (with restricted access)
Keywords: Monte Carlo method, bremsstrahlung, high-energy reactions, photon transport, positrons.
