Computational Analysis on the Enhancement of Daylight Penetration into Dimly Lit Spaces: Light Tube Vs. Fiber Optic Dish Concentrator

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2013

Publication Title

Building and Environment

Volume

59

First page number:

261

Last page number:

274

Abstract

Capturing daylight into an unevenly lit lecture room with north-facing windows has been analyzed with the help of Photopia and Radiance. Two different daylighting systems, a light tube and a fiber-optic solar dish concentrator, are considered as means to lead light rays into an interior space with insufficient illumination from daylight. Photopia is used to photometrically model the daylighting systems as light travels through highly reflective light guiding elements of these systems. The candela power distribution curves (CDCs) generated by Photopia are imported by Radiance to produce photometric data and images of different locations in the lecture room. These results clearly reveal the functional benefits of each system when harvesting daylight for indoor illumination. For solar altitudes of less than 50°, more daylight can be harvested by the solar tracking dish concentrator system. Also, its minimum-to-average (illuminance) uniformity ratio on the work plane remains between 0.55 and 0.72, varying quite less than that of the light tube, ranging from 0.46 to 0.88.

Disciplines

Controls and Control Theory | Electrical and Computer Engineering | Electrical and Electronics | Electronic Devices and Semiconductor Manufacturing | Power and Energy | Signal Processing | Systems and Communications

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.

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