Solar light transmission of polymer optical fibers

Light transfer (10 m) has been shown in recent experiments that used large-core optical fibers. Theoretical models are not extensive, however, and a further correlation between the theory and experiments has not been given. In this paper, straight and bent fiber subsystem models are introduced with skew and meridional rays to predict the light transmission of POFs (plastic optical fibers). Such fibers have been realized, for example, in HSL (hybrid solar lighting) systems. The purpose of this paper is to combine the straight and bent fiber subsystems to estimate the light transmission of HSL systems. It is shown that meridional rays, for which the optical-loss parameters were estimated, better represent the experimental results compared to skew rays (+/- 5.3% vs +/- 24.7% of %-difference). Model predictions were compared with the results of a commercial software. Sensitivity analysis on the subsystems indicated the most-to-least significant parameters in light transmission. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.