Iterative Monte Carlo procedure for quantitative X-ray fluorescence analysis of copper alloys with a covering layer

摘要

Monte Carlo simulations with the MCNP code were applied to evaluation of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) data obtained with two laboratory XRF devices. The aim of this investigation was to test an iterative Monte Carlo procedure used for quantitative analysis of copper alloys which were analyzed alone or they were overlapped with a covering layer. The iterative procedure consists of the performance of several Monte Carlo calculations with varying properties of a simulated object to obtain the best agreement of measured and calculated X-ray count rates of identified elements. The attention was paid to high efficiency of the Monte Carlo simulation to achieve shorter time for computing than for XRF measurements. The robustness of the quantitative MC procedure was tested for situations when the experimental conditions are not known exactly.