Computer program TRACK_VISION for simulating optical appearance of etched tracks in CR-39 nuclear track detectors

A computer program called TRACK_VISION for determining the optical appearances of tracks in nuclear track materials resulted from light-ion irradiation and subsequent chemical etching was described. A previously published software, TRACK_TEST, was the starting point for the present software TRACK_VISION, which contained TRACK_TEST as its subset. The programming steps were outlined. Descriptions of the program were given, including the built-in V functions for the commonly employed nuclear track material commercially known as CR-39 (polyallyldiglycol carbonate) irradiated by alpha particles. Program summary: Program title: TRACK_VISION. Catalogue identifier: AEAF_v1_0. Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEAF_v1_0.html. Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland. Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html. No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 4084. No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 71 117. Distribution format: tar.gz. Programming language: Fortran 90. Computer: Pentium PC. Operating system: Windows 95+. RAM: 256 MB. Classification: 17.5, 18. External routines: The entire code must be linked with the MSFLIB library. MSFLib is a collection of C and C++ modules which provides a general framework for processing IBM's AFP datastream. MSFLIB is specific to Visual Fortran (Digital, Compaq or Intel flavors). Nature of problem: Nuclear track detectors are commonly used for radon measurements through studying the tracks generated by the incident alpha particles. Optical microscopes are often used for this purpose but the process is relatively tedious and time consuming. Several automatic and semi-automatic systems have been developed in order to facilitate determination of track densities. In all these automatic systems, the optical appearance of the tracks is important. However, not much has been done so far to obtaining the optical appearances of etched tracks. Solution method: A computer program is prepared to study the optical characteristics of tracks in the CR-39 nuclear track detector using the ray tracing method. Based on geometrical optics, light propagation through the tracks is simulated and the brightness of all grid elements in the track wall is calculated. Additional comments: The program distribution file contains an executable which enables the program to be run on a Windows machine. The source code is also provided, but in order to build an executable the MSFLIB must be available. Running time: Running time depends mainly on the resolution (number of grid elements in the track wall) required by the user. Running time is normally less than 1 min. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.