Generally said, the light distribution from the fluorescent lamp may be assumed as that of a perfectly diffused linear light source with uniform brightness, at least for the end of lighting design. However, in the photometry of the fluorescent lamp, this assumption does not suffice. The brightness distribution of the elementary portion of the lamp is no more uniform but slightly pointed. H. D. Einhorn and J. D. Sauerman, 1946, proposed for this, such a relation as following:
B (α)=
B (o) {
k+ (1-
k) cosα}
where α stands for the angle of emission, B (α) the brightness against α and
k some constant proper fraction. The light distribution from a fluorescent lamp, basing on this assumption, may be written as
I (θ)=
In sinθ {
k+ (1-
k) sinθ}, [Equation (7) in the text].
Now, in performing the photometry of a fluorescent lamp, because of its large luminous area and its low brightness, we are usually obliged to do it at a so short distance as the inverse square law is not yet valid. According to these two causes, the light distribution observed at the usually available distance should be by far different from the simple approximation
I (θ)=
In sinθ
The present authors, at first, calculated this apparent light distribution from the same assumption as that of Einhorn and Sauermann, and then expanded it into series, such as
I (ρθ) =2
I1h {
kΣ∞0a
1lx
2l+1 (-
k) ∞Σ0a
2lx
2l}, [Equation (14) in the text]
where ρ: photometric distance,
I
1: horizontal intensity per unit length of lamp, h: half length of the lamp, x=h/ρ, and aη: some functions of θ only, given in the table 1 in the text. Io is a matter of course, that this expression tends to the equation (7), as ρ becomes infinitely large. The authors, being informed only with the assumption and the conclusion but nothing with the details, concerning to the papers of Einhorn and Sauerman, worked out on them. Afterwards they could read the original papers and found that the authors' work consisted with that of Einhorn and Sauerman in conclusion but had gone into more detail than it.
Comparing the calculated data with the one observed, though the accuracy of the measurement was not sufficient, the present authors concluded that the assumption on the brightness distribution by Einhorn and Sauerman was valid, only as a practical approximation but a fairly good one.
Some authorities offer the relation between total flux and horizontal intensity. The American Standard gives 9.25 at the photometric distance as long as five times the lamp length, while the Japanese Industrial Standard 9.3 at the distance
more than four times the lamp length. The present study calls us an attention for using such a rule, that is, the ratio varies not only with the value of
k in the above equations but also with the photometric distance. The present authors give an approximate formula, such as the equation (20) in the text, for the factor as a function not only of the value of k but also of the photometric distance. The formula is traced in Fig. 2, and the observed data are plotted in it, as shown in Fig. 4. There are some discrepancies between the calculation and the observation, which require us further studies. Comparison was done with the measurement by C. E. Horn, W. F. Little and E. H. Slater, ETL in U.S.A., 1952, too.
Some considerations on the effects of the occultation and the interflection between lamps, in the case of multiple lamp measurement, are added.
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