Benchmarking of Heavy Ion Transport Codes PHITS,FLUKA, HETC-HEDS, and MARS15

Powerful accelerators such as spallation neutron sources, muon-collider/neutrino facilities, and rare isotope beam facilities must be designed with the consideration that they handle the beam power reliably and safely, and they must be optimized to yield maximum performance relative to their design requirements. The simulation codes used for design purposes must produce reliable results. If not, component and facility designs can become costly, have limited lifetime and usefulness, and could even be unsafe. The objective of this proposal is to assess the performance of the currently available codes - PHITS, FLUKA, MARS15, and HETC-HEDS - that could be used for design simulations involving heavy ion transport. We plan to access their performance by performing simulations and comparing results against experimental data of benchmark quality. Quantitative knowledge of the biases and the uncertainties of the simulations is essential as this potentially impacts the safe, reliable and cost effective design of any future radioactive ion beam facility. Further benchmarking of heavy-ion transport codes was one of the actions recommended in the "Report of the 2003 RIA R&D Workshop." Planned Scope of Work: This research will provide insight on the reliability and opportunities for improvement of currently available heavy ion radiation transport codes for the simulation of radiation fields, which is necessary for the safe, reliable and cost effective design of any future radioactive ion beam facility.