An Overview of ETRAN Monte Carlo Methods

Abstract

A series of Monte Carlo codes for the calculation of the transport of electrons and photons through extended media has been developed at the National Bureau of Standards over the past 25 years. These codes have been named ETRAN (for Electron TRANsport), with the various versions representing mainly refinements, embellishments and different geometrical treatments that share the same basic algorithms for simulating by random sampling the course of electrons and photons as they travel through matter. These algorithms, which taken together have been called the ETRAN model, form the basis also of codes written at other laboratories, such as Sandia’s older SANDYL code and their more current series of the TIGER, CYLTRAN, and ACCEPT codes described elsewhere in this volume. In this chapter, the ETRAN methods are described as they are currently being implemented in our codes at NBS.