Optical Fiber
Optical fibers are well known as fiberscopes for imaging applications and as light guides for a wide range of non-imaging applications. In the latter context, they can also be used for daylighting: a solar lighting system based on plastic optical fibers was in development at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2004; the system was installed at the American Museum of Science and Energy, Tennessee, USA, in 2005, and brought to market the same year by the company Sunlight Direct. However, this system was taken off the market in 2009.
Optical fibers are also used in the Bjork system sold by Parans Solar Lighting AB. The optic fibers in this system are made of PMMA (PolyMethylMethAcrylate) and sheated with Megolon, a halogen-free thermoplastic resin. A system as this however is quite expensive.
A similar system, but using optical fibers of glass, had earlier been under study in Japan.
In view of the usually small diameter of the fibers, an efficient daylighting set-up requires a parabolic collector to track the sun and concentrate its light.
Optical fibers intended for light transport need to propagate as much light as possible within the core; in contrast, optical fibers intended for light distribution are designed to let part of the light leak through their cladding.
Read more about this topic: Light Tube, Materials and Set-up
Famous quotes containing the words optical and/or fiber:
“There is an optical illusion about every person we meet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I am an invisible man.... I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.”
—Ralph Ellison (b. 1914)