Clatterbridge

Simulation of the Clatterbridge beamline

This simulation models the monoenergetic 62.5 MeV proton beam at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, as it traverses the components of the beamline and is then deposited into a volume of water. The beamline components are contained within a geometry modelling the Clatterbridge treatment room.

The protons are generated using the G4ParticleGun class, and the physics list used is QGSP_BIC_HP, standard for simulating clinical proton beams.

The energy of the beam after travelling through the beamline components is measured by tracking the energy deposition of individual protons within the water volume, using the G4Track class. This simulation produces a post-beamline energy of 60.08 MeV and a Bragg peak at depth [insert depth].

Running the simulation

Run macro proton.mac

[username@plus1 ProtonPB_build]$ ./protonPB proton.mac

Data Analysis

The macro produces several output files.

hits.out

This file contains information about the energy deposition in the water volume.

Open ROOT and run the simulation analysis file

[username@plus1 ProtonPB_build]$ root -l
root [1] .x simulation_analysis.C

Changing parameters

Scoring mesh

Initial beam parameters

Beam radius

/gps/pos/radius 3 mm

Beam energy

/gps/ene/type Gauss
/gps/ene/mono 62.5 MeV
/gps/ene/sigma 0.082 MeV

Source position

/gps/pos/type Plane
/gps/pos/shape Circle
/gps/pos/centre 0.0 0.0 -420 cm