Spherical Prototype to Determine the Irradiance Patterns Produced by Divergent Sources

摘要

In this work, the development of a spherical irradiance meter is presented. The illumination intensity measurements are made by means of a photo-detector assembled on a mechanical setup. The received power by the detector is useful to obtain the irradiance profile of the lighting source under test, considering a discrete set of points. This detector is located at the edge of the mobile arm of the mechanical system, which makes a sweep considering two movements directed by the azimuthal and zenithal angles, generating analogous paths to the terrestrial meridians, covering a semi-sphere of 27 cm of radius. The concentric trajectories consider lighting source under test at their center. The radiation pattern of each lighting source is generated using the irradiance data and the detector positions.The mechanical structure has a horizontal mobile base, which allows a 360° rotation. At the same time, one of its extremes serves as base of the mobile arm, which allows the vertical movements and provides the sensor support. The movements are controlled by step motors determining the data collection points. They also define the horizontal and vertical resolution. The obtained data is visualized by means of a display.