Validation of a virtual source model of medical linac for Monte Carlo dose calculation using multi-threaded Geant4.

Validation of a virtual source model of medical linac for Monte Carlo dose calculation using multi-threaded Geant4. Phys Med Biol. 2018 Mar 19;: Authors: Aboulbanine Z, El Khayati N Abstract The use of phase space in medical linear accelerator Monte Carlo (MC) simulations significantly improves the execution time and leads to results comparable to those obtained from full calculations. The classical representation of phase space stores directly the information of millions of particles, producing bulky files. This paper presents a virtual source model (VSM) based on a reconstruction algorithm, taking as input a compressed file of roughly 800 kb derived from phase space data freely available in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) database. This VSM includes two main components; primary and scattered particle sources, with a specific reconstruction method developed for each. Energy spectra and other relevant variables were extracted from IAEA phase space and stored in the input description data file for both sources. The VSM was validated for three photon beams: Elekta Precise 6 MV/10 MV and a Varian TrueBeam 6 MV. Extensive calculations in water and comparisons between dose distributions of the VSM and IAEA phase space were performed to estimate the VSM precision. The Geant4 MC toolkit in multi-threaded mode (Geant4-[mt]) was used for fast dose calculations and optimized memory use. Four field configurations were chosen for d...
Source: Physics in Medicine and Biology - Category: Physics Authors: Tags: Phys Med Biol Source Type: research