Cardboard Packaging in Geant4 Material List

Geometry, Fields and Transportation
1

Greetings,

I was looking for a material similar to ‘cardboard’ utilised for packaging in Geant4 libraries, but I could not find either the exact ‘cardboard’ or some similar material like paper. Can you please assist me to find – or even define – a material similar to a cardboard?

2

The Geant4 NIST materials list contains four different cellulose derivative, which is probably the closest you’ll get to “cardboard” (i.e., dried wood pulp):

 3    G4_CELLULOSE_CELLOPHANE       1.42      77.6   
 3      G4_CELLULOSE_BUTYRATE        1.2      74.6   
 4       G4_CELLULOSE_NITRATE       1.49        87   
 3         G4_ETHYL_CELLULOSE       1.13      69.3

You’ll probably need to do a bit of searching online to find out what’s most appropriate. You’ll also want to set the density yourself to match the density of whatever you’re using in real life.

3

According to this article, ‘Preparation and Properties of Cellulose-Based Films Regenerated from Waste Corrugated Cardboards Using [Amim]Cl/CaCl_2’ For a P-WCC (i.e., Pre-treated Waste Corrugated Cardboard), this material definition shall suffice for representing cardboard; although density is not defined, but an amount of 0.72-0.8 g/cm^3 seems reasonable.

void DefineP_WCC_Material() {
    G4NistManager* nist = G4NistManager::Instance();

    // Define elements
    G4Element* C  = nist->FindOrBuildElement("C");
    G4Element* H  = nist->FindOrBuildElement("H");
    G4Element* O  = nist->FindOrBuildElement("O");
    G4Element* Ca = nist->FindOrBuildElement("Ca");

    // === Component Materials ===

    // Cellulose: C6H10O5
    G4Material* Cellulose = new G4Material("Cellulose", 1.5*g/cm3, 3);
    Cellulose->AddElement(C, 6);
    Cellulose->AddElement(H, 10);
    Cellulose->AddElement(O, 5);

    // Hemicellulose (Xylan): C5H8O4
    G4Material* Hemicellulose = new G4Material("Hemicellulose", 1.4*g/cm3, 3);
    Hemicellulose->AddElement(C, 5);
    Hemicellulose->AddElement(H, 8);
    Hemicellulose->AddElement(O, 4);

    // Lignin: C10H12O3
    G4Material* Lignin = new G4Material("Lignin", 1.3*g/cm3, 3);
    Lignin->AddElement(C, 10);
    Lignin->AddElement(H, 12);
    Lignin->AddElement(O, 3);

    // Calcium Carbonate: CaCO3
    G4Material* CalciumCarbonate = new G4Material("CalciumCarbonate", 2.7*g/cm3, 3);
    CalciumCarbonate->AddElement(Ca, 1);
    CalciumCarbonate->AddElement(C, 1);
    CalciumCarbonate->AddElement(O, 3);

    // Water: H2O
    G4Material* Water = new G4Material("Water", 1.0*g/cm3, 2);
    Water->AddElement(H, 2);
    Water->AddElement(O, 1);

    // === Final Composite Material ===

    G4Material* P_WCC = new G4Material("P_WCC", 0.8*g/cm3, 5);  // Estimated density

    P_WCC->AddMaterial(Cellulose,        82.32 * perCent);
    P_WCC->AddMaterial(Hemicellulose,     7.11 * perCent);
    P_WCC->AddMaterial(Lignin,            7.65 * perCent);
    P_WCC->AddMaterial(CalciumCarbonate,  1.92 * perCent);
    P_WCC->AddMaterial(Water,             2.00 * perCent);
}