Simulation of efficiency and time resolution of resistive plate chambers and comparison with experimental data

The India based Neutrino Observatory (INO) collaboration is planning to build a 50 kton magnetized Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) detector to study neutrino oscillations and measure their associated parameters. ICAL will use 28,800 glass Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) of 2 m×2 m in size as its active detector elements. These RPCs will be operated in the avalanche mode. As a part of the detector R&D to develop the RPCs required for this detector, we made a comparative study of the effect of Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF₆) in the gas mixture on the induced charge using simulation and experimental data in our earlier paper [1]. In this paper, we extend our studies to efficiency and time resolution of the RPC using simulation and experimental data. Several software tools have been used to carry out the simulation. We have calculated the primary interaction parameters using HEED and Geant4. The electron transport parameters have been computed using MAGBOLTZ. We have used nearly exact Boundary Element Method (neBEM) and COMSOL Multiphysics, a Finite Element Method package for calculating the weighting field and the electric field.