Laboratory Assessment of In-Pavement Airport Lamp's Luminous Intensity Distribution

The luminous intensity measurements of airport navigational lighting should be performed in accordance with the recommendations of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which allows for the determination of the possibility of further operation or the need to replace particular lamps. This article presents a device and method for measuring the light main beam of in-pavement airport lamps used on runways and taxiways. During the measuring process in the laboratory dark room, the proposed system automatically prepares reports as heatmaps presenting angular relationships of light distribution. Photometric measurements were made using a BH1750 illuminance sensor, which was compared to a certified Sonopan L-200P luxmeter. The measurement stability of different BH1750 modes was investigated for different airport lamp power source thresholds. Due to distortions in spectral characteristic of BH1750, polynomial corrections were proposed. The functionality of the device was presented for the exemplary assessment of used and refurbished runway in-pavement airport lamps to compare their parameters change. The research results and device implementation were possible through scientific cooperation with the Poznan-Lawica Airport.