AN INTERCOMPARISON OF GLOW CURVE ANALYSIS COMPUTER-PROGRAMS .2. MEASURED GLOW CURVES

The results of an analysis of thirteen different computer programs inv olving 11 participants from 10 countries on eight measured glow curves originating from LiF(TLD-100) have been compared. The programs use a shape of a single glow peak which varies from program to program. Gene rally speaking, the better the approximation to a first order kinetics (Randall-Wilkins) glow peak shape the better the fit to the main peak s (Nos 2 to 5) in a measured TLD-100 glow curve. The results deviate a long with the complexity of the glow curve. Peak areas and activation energies of peaks 2 to 5 in a TLD-100 glow curve have been determined to within 3% by the programs with the better approximation to the Rand all-Wilkins model. Programs with less accurate expressions for the glo w peak shape show outliers up to 19%. The participants did not handle the background in a uniform way. At low doses these differences influe nce the fitting parameters, including peak areas, i.e. the absorbed do se, strongly. Also for a complex glow curve, where many closely overla pping peaks of similar intensity are present, the results of the diffe rent programs vary strongly.