Thermal management for a poly(methyl acrylate) optical fiber in solar lighting

We present a 3-D thermal analysis of a poly(methyl acrylate) optical fiber to select a method to prevent thermal degradation (TD) of the fiber. Such poly(methyl acrylate)-core optical fibers have been realized in many solar lighting applications. We give the radial and axial temperature distributions on the entrance region of the optical fiber for two solar collector designs and five different preventive methods. The simulation results showed that attachment of a fused quartz rod to the fiber entrance region was an efficient low-cost way to protect the optical fiber. A temperature was predicted for the deformed fiber entrance region of the experimental results from the simulations.