• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.150-157
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• 2022

Purpose: Elekta synergy^® was commissioned in the Seoul National University Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. Recently, Chung-Ang University Gwang Myeong Hospital commissioned Elekta Versa HD^TM. The beam characteristics of both machines are similar because of the same Agility^TM MLC Model. We compared measured beam data calculated using the Elekta treatment planning system, Monaco^®, for each institute. Methods: Beam of the commissioning Elekta linear accelerator were measured in two independent institutes. After installing the beam model based on the measured beam data into the Monaco^®, Monte Carlo (MC) simulation data were generated, mimicking the beam data in a virtual water phantom. Measured beam data were compared with the calculated data, and their similarity was quantitatively evaluated by the gamma analysis. Results: We compared the percent depth dose (PDD) and off-axis profiles of 6 MV photon and 6 MeV electron beams with MC calculation. With a 3%/3 mm gamma criterion, the photon PDD and profiles showed 100% gamma passing rates except for one inplane profile at 10 cm depth from VMTH. Gamma analysis of the measured photon beam off-axis profiles between the two institutes showed 100% agreement. The electron beams also indicated 100% agreement in PDD distributions. However, the gamma passing rates of the off-axis profiles were 91%-100% with a 3%/3 mm gamma criterion. Conclusions: The beam and their comparison with MC calculation for each institute showed good performance. Although the measuring tools were orthogonal, no significant difference was found.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.24-31
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• 2005

The stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) describes a method of delivering a high dose of radiation to a small tar-get volume in the brain, generally in a single fraction, while the dose delivered to the surrounding normal tissue should be minimized. To perform automatic plan of the SRS, a new method of multi-isocenter/shot linear accelerator (linac) and gamma knife (GK) radiosurgery treatment plan was developed, based on a physical lattice structure in target. The optimal radiosurgical plan had been constructed by many beam parameters in a linear accelerator or gamma knife-based radiation therapy. In this work, an isocenter/shot was modeled as a sphere, which is equal to the circular collimator/helmet hole size because the dimension of the 50% isodose level in the dose profile is similar to its size. In a computer-aided system, it accomplished first an automatic arrangement of multi-isocenter/shot considering two parameters such as positions and collimator/helmet sizes for each isocenter/shot. Simultaneously, an irregularly shaped target was approximated by cubic structures through computation of voxel units. The treatment planning method by the technique was evaluated as a dose distribution by dose volume histograms, dose conformity, and dose homogeneity to targets. For irregularly shaped targets, the new method performed optimal multi-isocenter packing, and it only took a few seconds in a computer-aided system. The targets were included in a more than 50% isodose curve. The dose conformity was ordinarily acceptable levels and the dose homogeneity was always less than 2.0, satisfying for various targets referred to Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) SRS criteria. In conclusion, this approach by physical lattice structure could be a useful radiosurgical plan without restrictions in the various tumor shapes and the different modality techniques such as linac and GK for SRS.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.2699-2708
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• 2020

Helical-coil steam generator (HCSG) technology is a major design candidate for small modular reactors due to its compactness and capability to produce superheated steam with high generation efficiency. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of the passively autonomous power maneuvering by coupling the 3-D transient multi-physics of a soluble-boron-free (SBF) core with a time-dependent HCSG model. The predictor corrector quasi-static method was used to reduce the cost of the transient 3-D neutronic solution. In the numerical system simulations, the feedwater flow rate to the secondary of the HCSGs is adjusted to extract the demanded power from the primary loop. This varies the coolant temperature at the inlet of the SBF core, which governs the passively autonomous power maneuvering due to the strongly negative coolant reactivity feedback. Here, we simulate a 100-50-100 load-follow operation with a 5%/minute power ramping speed to investigate the feasibility of the passively autonomous load-follow in a 450 MW_th SBF PWR. In addition, the passively autonomous frequency control operation is investigated. The various system models are coupled, and they are solved by an in-house Fortran-95 code. The results of this work demonstrate constant steam temperature in the secondary side and limited variation of the primary coolant temperature. Meanwhile, the variations of the core axial shape index and the core power peaking are sufficiently small.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4798-4808
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• 2022

The porous corrosion deposits (known as CRUD) adhered to the cladding have an important effect on the heat transfer from fuel rods to coolant in PWRs. The vapor film is the main constituent in the two-phase film boiling model. This paper presents a vapor film thickness correlation, associated with CRUD porosity, CRUD chimney density, CRUD particle size, CRUD thickness and heat flux. The dependences of the vapor film thickness on the various influential factors can be intuitively reflected from this vapor film thickness correlation. The temperature, pressure, and boric acid concentration distributions in CRUD can be well predicted using the two-phase film boiling model coupled with the vapor film thickness correlation. It suggests that the vapor thickness correlation can estimate the vapor film thickness more conveniently than the previously reported vapor thickness calculation methods.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.168-177
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• 2015

For evaluating the treatment planning accurately, the quality assurance for treatment planning is recommended when patients were treated with IMRT which is complex and delicate. To realize this purpose, treatment plan quality assurance software can be used to verify the delivered dose accurately before and after of treatment. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of treatment plan quality assurance software for each IMRT plan according to MLC DLG (dosimetric leaf gap). Novalis Tx with a built-in HD120 MLC was used in this study to acquire the MLC dynalog file be imported in MobiusFx. To establish IMRT plan, Eclipse RTP system was used and target and organ structures (multi-target, mock prostate, mock head/neck, C-shape case) were contoured in I'mRT phantom. To verify the difference of dose distribution according to DLG, MLC dynalog files were imported to MobiusFx software and changed the DLG (0.5, 0.7, 1.0, 1.3, 1.6 mm) values in MobiusFx. For evaluation dose, dose distribution was evaluated by using 3D gamma index for the gamma criteria 3% and distance to agreement 3 mm, and the point dose was acquired by using the CC13 ionization chamber in isocenter of I'mRT phantom. In the result for point dose, the mock head/neck and multi-target had difference about 4% and 3% in DLG 0.5 and 0.7 mm respectively, and the other DLGs had difference less than 3%. The gamma index passing-rate of mock head/neck were below 81% for PTV and cord, and multi-target were below 30% for center and superior target in DLGs 0.5, 0.7 mm, however, inferior target of multi-target case and parotid of mock head/neck case had 100.0% passing rate in all DLGs. The point dose of mock prostate showed difference below 3.0% in all DLGs, however, the passing rate of PTV were below 95% in 0.5, 0.7 mm DLGs, and the other DLGs were above 98%. The rectum and bladder had 100.0% passing rate in all DLGs. As the difference of point dose in C-shape were 3~9% except for 1.3 mm DLG, the passing rate of PTV in 1.0 1.3 mm were 96.7, 93.0% respectively. However, passing rate of the other DLGs were below 86% and core was 100.0% passing rate in all DLGs. In this study, we verified that the accuracy of treatment planning QA system can be affected by DLG values. For precise quality assurance for treatment technique using the MLC motion like IMRT and VMAT, we should use appropriate DLG value in linear accelerator and RTP system.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.408-416
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• 2021

In the ultrasonic dispersion, in order to avoid direct contact of the radiation surface of ultrasonic transducers with a liquid sample, the liquid sample is separated by a glass container and it receives ultrasonic energy through an acoustic medium. The transmission efficiency of the ultrasonic energy in the multi-layered ultrasonic system is an important factor. In this study, we suggested a method that can improve the ultrasonic energy transfer efficiency by using a propylene glycol solution as a liquid matching layer in the multi-layered acoustic system. In this method, a propylene glycol solution was filled between the Langevin-type ultrasonic transducer and the luminol solution and the sonoluminescence phenomena in the luminol solution, which is caused by nonlinear effect of high power ultrasound radiated from the transducer, was examined by using a Photo Multiplier Tube (PMT). The transmission efficiency depending on the concentration of propylene glycol solution was observed, and we can see that as the concentration of the propylene glycol solution increased, the matching effect increased while the acoustic attenuation increased. It was confirmed that there is an optimal concentration compromised these two conflicting conditions, and the optimum concentration of the propylene glycol solution was determined experimentally.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.250-257
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• 2015

Multi-leaf collimator (MLC) systems are frequently used to deliver photon-based radiation, and allow conformal shaping of treatment beams. Many proton beam centers currently make use of aperture and snout systems, which involve use of a snout to shape and focus the proton beam, a brass aperture to modify field shape, and an acrylic compensator to modulate depth. However, it needs a lot of time and cost of preparing treatment, therefore, we developed the manual MLC for solving this problem. This study was carried out with the intent of designing an MLC system as an alternative to an aperture block system. Radio-activation and dose due to primary proton beam leakage and the presence of secondary neutrons were taken into account during these iterations. Analytical calculations were used to study the effects of leaf material on activation. We have fabricated tray model for adoption with a wobbling snout ($30{\times}40cm^2$) system which used uniform scanning beam. We designed the manual MLC and tray and can reduce the cost and time for treatment. After leakage test of new tray, we upgrade the tray with brass and made the safety tool. First, we have tested the radio-activation with usually brass and new brass for new manual MLC. It shows similar behavior and decay trend. In addition, we have measured the leakage test of a gantry with new tray and MLC tray, while we exposed the high energy with full modulation process on film dosimetry. The radiation leakage is less than 1%. From these results, we have developed the design of the tray and upgrade for safety. Through the radio-activation behavior, we figure out the proton beam leakage level of safety, where there detects the secondary particle, including neutron. After developing new design of the tray, it will be able to reduce the time and cost of proton treatment. Finally, we have applied in clinic test with original brass aperture and manual MLC and calculated the gamma index, 99.74% between them.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.53-67
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• 1997

General hospitals have being under the influence of various and specific environment of electromagnetic field. The factors are development of medical electric equipment and device with enlarged functional demands, in high power and multi-frequency. It has all of both faces, EMI(electromagnetic interference) and EMS(electromagnetic susceptibility). In additional, expansion of personal communication system(cellular phone) has many unreliable factor of using time and area, making noise of electromagnetic fields. We studied actual conditions of EMI in the medical site, where is numerous medical equipment, especially central operation room and ICU(intensive care unit), AKR(artificial kidney room : hemo-dialysis unit), etc. The influence, most of medical equipments made electromagnetic nosie has various factors in its band of frequency, harmonics and strength. In the experimental use of electro-surgical unit and cellular phone, noticeable and considerable noise of eletromagnetic fields were measured. All of that can make trouble and errors on the steadiness of bioelectrical devices. In conclusion, It is necessary to reconsiderations of reallocating EMI source vs. EMS factor, and set to definite forbiding area of using cellular phone. For maintenance of steady normal conditions, in spite of existing any other legal standards of safty level, it need considering all of alternative electromagnetic situations on a case-by-case basis.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.192-200
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• 2006

We evaluated the positional accuracy of the delivered beams to the target in a phantom by simulating the whole process of the radiation treatments Including CT scanning, planning and beam exposures with MLCs. For this purpose, a phantom was made to calibrate the alignment between the CT and the attached laser system. A new, convenient method was also devised to align the setup lasers in the treatment room. Film was used for the Identification of the delivered beam and analyzed with a homemade computer program. The positional differences between the target and the beam centers varied with the couch rotations. The accelerator we used showed a maximum discrepancy of 2.0 mm at the table angle of $295^{\circ}$. The same measurements based on the new isocenter from the Winston-Lutz test resulted in the maximum of 1.35 mm for all rotation angles. The evaluation of the differences between the target and the beam centers is useful for the treatment planning.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.293-294
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• 2011

It is known that semiconductor quantum-dot (QD) heterostructures have superior zero-dimensional quantum confinement, and they have been successfully applied to semiconductor laser diodes (QDLDs) for optical communication and infrared photodetectors (QDIPs) for thermal images [1]. The self-assembled QDs are normally formed at Stranski-Krastanov (S-K) growth mode utilizing the accumulated strain due to lattice-mismatch existing at heterointerfaces between QDs and cap layers. In order to increase the areal density and the number of stacks of QDs, recently, sub-monolayer (SML)-thick QDs (SQDs) with reduced strain were tried by equivalent thicknesses thinner than a wetting layer (WL) existing in conventional QDs (CQDs) by S-K mode. Despite that it is very different from CQDs with a well-defined WL, the SQD structure has been successfully applied to QDIP[2]. In this study, optical characteristics are investigated by using photoluminescence (PL) spectra taken from self-assembled InAs/GaAs QDs whose coverage are changing from submonolayer to a few monolayers. The QD structures were grown by using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on semi-insulating GaAs (100) substrates, and formed at a substrate temperature of 480$^{\circ}C$ followed by covering GaAs cap layer at 590$^{\circ}C$. We prepared six 10-period-stacked QD samples with different InAs coverages and thicknesses of GaAs spacer layers. In the QD coverage below WL thickness (~1.7 ML), the majority of SQDs with no WL coexisted with a small amount of CQDs with a WL, and multi-peak spectra changed to a single peak profile. A transition from SQDs to CQDs was found before and after a WL formation, and the sublevel of SQDs peaking at (1.32${\pm}$0.1) eV was much closer to the GaAs bandedge than that of CQDs (~1.2 eV). These revealed that QDs with no WL could be formed by near-ML coverage in InAs/GaAs system, and single-mode SQDs could be achieved by 1.5 ML just below WL that a strain field was entirely uniform.