This book covers theoretical aspects that are at the basis of lighting installations. It focuses on insight, backgrounds and coherence. There are many fundamental aspects that are essential for understanding why different ways to install and use lighting give different results. A purely pragmatic approach to solving practical lighting problems will lead to pitfalls. But as this book shows, on the basis of fundamental considerations on optics, light sources and vision, causes and effects that tend to be overlooked by lighting engineers and designers can be identified. The selection of subjects in this book is based on more than 50 years of experience in studying the fundamental and practical applications of lighting and vision. The author has given classes on these topics, in master courses at post-graduate and post-doctoral levels. Contents Preface 1: Introduction: The function of outdoor lighting 1.1 Why lighting outdoors? 1.2 Lighting engineering 1.3 The function of outdoor lighting 1.4 Cognitive aspects of vision 1.5 Tools and methods 1.6 Conclusions 2: Physical aspects of light production 2.1 The physics of light 2.2 General aspects of light production 2.3 Incandescence 2.4 Gas-discharge lamps 2.5 Semiconductor light. 2.6 Conclusions 3: Radiometry and photometry 3.1 Radiometry 3.2 Basic photometric concepts 3.3 Conclusions 4: The mathematics of luminance 4.1 The field concept 4.2 Some aspects of hydrodynamics 4.3 The luminance of real and virtual objects 4.4 The luminance of reflecting surfaces 4.5 Conclusions 5: Practical Photometry 5.1 General aspects of photometry 5.2 Traditional subjective photometry 5.3 Traditional objective photometry 5.4 Modern objective photometry 5.5 Conclusions 6: The human observer; physical and anatomical aspects of vision 6.1 The ability to see 6.2 The nervous system 6.3 The anatomy of the human visual system 6.4 The optical nerve tracts 6.5 Conclusions 7: The human observer; visual performance aspects 7.1 The functions of the human visual system 7.2 The sensitivity of the human visual system 7.3 Visual performance 7.4 The primary visual functions 7.5 Conclusions 8: The human observer; visual perception 8.1 Derived visual functions 8.2 Blinding glare 8.3 Disability glare 8.4 Discomfort glare 8.5 Conclusions 9: The human observer; colour vision 9.1 Colour aspects 9.2 Colour vision physiology 9.3 Colour metrics and colorimetry 9.4 The colour characteristics of light sources 9.5 Conclusions 10: Road lighting applications 10.1 Geometric optics 10.2 Luminaire design 10.3 Light pollution 10.4 Reflection properties of road surfaces 10.5 Conclusions 11: Road lighting design 11.1 Design methods for road lighting installations11.2 Road lighting for developing countries 11.3 Simplified design methods 11.4 Conclusions, References, Subject Index |