General framework for calculating irradiance distributions of symmetric surface sources

Symmetries in system modeling can be exploited to obtain analytical results on the system behavior and to speed up computations using the symmetric model. This work explores the use of symmetries in radiant surfaces for calculating the induced irradiance distributions by developing a general mathematical expression. The obtained model is applied to flat, cylindrical, and spherical sources to obtain explicit expressions. An experimental evaluation of the flat source is carried out and compared with a traditional point source, and the obtained procedure for the flat scenario is compared with the direct integration approach, which shows an improvement in the computation time of at least two orders of magnitude with a relative root mean square error of less than 10%. The results show that the proposed approach enhances short-range predictions for extended sources. To demonstrate the impact of this in optical wireless communications we have outlined a few applications. (C) 2022 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

This work explores the use of symmetries in radiant surfaces to calculate induced irradiance distributions. A general mathematical expression is developed and applied to different types of sources. Experimental evaluation and comparisons are conducted, showing significant improvements in computation time and accuracy. The proposed approach enhances short-range predictions for extended sources. The article also outlines applications in optical wireless communications.