Revista de la Facultad de Ingeniera U.C.V., Vol. 32, N10, pp.

32-37, 2017

Perceived Contrast Revealing Coefficient in Tunnel Lighting Design

Xu Jingfeng1,2 *
1
College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, China
2
Key Laboratory of New Technology for Construction of Cities in Mountain Area, Chongqing University,
Chongqing, 400045, China
*Corresponding author (E-mail: 151431437@qq.com)

Huang Ke
College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing, 400074, China

Abstract
When evaluating the quality of tunnel lighting, the driver's visual adaptation, visual physiology and visual
psychology is very complex, and difficult to quantify. But in the perceived contrast design method of tunnel
lighting, the contrast revealing coefficient qc is only related to luminance and illuminance, which can be easily
measured. In this letter, the formula of the contrast revealing coefficient was deduced, and the results showed
that qc affected by the tunnel lighting environment factors directly, which are just physical quantity. So, qc can
objectively reflect the driver's visual adaptation, visual physiology and visual psychology. Together with other 9
parameters, highway tunnel lighting quality evaluation index system can be established.

Key words: Tunnel Lighting, Road Luminance, Contrast Revealing Coefficient, Small target obstacle.

1. INTRODUCTION
Road lighting creates a good visual environment for the drivers to drive safely and efficiency(G Parise, L
Martirano and L Parise, 2016). In 2010, the the International Commission on illumination (Commission
Internationale de l'Eclairage-CIE) suggested take the perceived contrast coefficient as one of the evaluation
index of tunnel lighting quality evaluation, and replace the current standard of luminance and illuminance.
The current luminance and illuminance standard focus on the brightness at the road surface, while the
driver's physiological and psychological feeling is not considered, and the environmental impact is not
considered too(Huang and Weng, 2013). Also these indicators can not accurately reflect the driver's visual
perception. It is a reasonable method to judge the quality of the tunnel lighting environment by judge whether
the driver can identify the small target obstacles in time(Brmond, Bodard, Dumont and Nouailles-Mayeur,
2013).
The contrast revealing coefficient qc is positively related to the identification of the target. So, qc can
objectively reflect the driver's visual adaptation, visual physiology and visual psychology. Together with other 9
parameters, this letter stablished a highway tunnel lighting quality evaluation index system. This evaluation
system should be more scientific and applicable.

2. THE CONTRAST REVEALING COEFFICIENT

The contrast revealing coefficient qc is the ratio of road brightness in designated areas Lb to the luminance
of vertical surface of the small target Ev.

q c Lb / E v (1)

The small target obstacle is a diffuse surface cube with a side length of 0.2 m and a light reflection ratio of
0.2. Ev is the vertical illuminance, facing the direction of the vehicle driving, on the vertical surface, at the
center of the object. Lb refers to the background luminance of the road area next to the small target(Fig.1).
The contrast revealing coefficient definition formula showed that the value of qc only related with the road
surface brightness and small target vertical illumination, and has nothing to do with the drivers visual
adaptation, physiological and psychological condition(XU, ZHANG, HE and WENG, 2016). qc can be look as 2
kinds of photometry -- the ratio of luminance and illuminance. These cannot reflect all the actual conditions of
the drivers visual problem when driving through highway tunnel.Because the tunnel is like a long pipe,
especially in the sunny day, more easy to produce the unique dark and light adaptation of visual phenomenon,
namely the so-called black hole phenomenon, black box and white hole phenomenon. And produce motion
effect and wall effect, adapt to the hysteresis phenomenon, these phenomena and effect will produce drivers
discomfort in the physical and psychological(Cengiz, Puolakka and Halonen, 2015; Uchida and Ohno,

32
 Revista de la Facultad de Ingeniera U.C.V., Vol. 32, N10, pp. 32-37, 2017

2014).Therefore, tunnel lighting quality evaluation index system must sensitively reflect the influence of various
parameters of tunnel lighting visual comfort. Only follow the evaluation index evaluation index of road tunnel
lighting design standard, it can ensure the traffic safety, fast and comfortable conditions, and achieve energy
saving purpose(Tideman, Voor and Arem, 2010).

Figure 1. The small target obstacle

2. THE ELEMNTS OF THE CONTRAST REVEALING COEFFICIENT

The small target is a cube with diffuse reflection surface. After measured the vertical illumination Ev
and the surfaces reflectivity, the lumination can be calculated:
Lt 0 E v / (2)

Put them into formula (1) , it can be obtained that:

q c ( 0 / ) Lb / Lt (3)

From equation (3), contrast revealing coefficient proportional to the ratio of road luminance and small
target surface reflectance brightness, in this case qc=0.38.
In driving, in order to ensure traffic safety, you need to identify a small target at a safe stop distance,
such as the speed of 80 km/h, the safe stop distance is 100 m.
Therefore, in practice, the driver should see the surface brightness and reflected light of the small
target, rather than the road surface brightness near the small target(Mayeur, Brmond and Bastien, 2010).
The brightness of pavement and small target surface of light in the drivers eyes, composed of target
luminance cross the atmosphere and the automobile front windshield, atmospheric scattering light
brightness Latm, the automobile front windshield brightness Lws, and equivalent veiling luminance of Lseq
produced by the driver's eyes swept from the scenery light. The transmission of automobile windshiel and
atmosphere is ws and atm. So, the detection brightness of surface Lbp and target Ltp inevitably affected by
the factors above, and can be expressed by formula (4) and formula (5):
(4)
Lbp ws atm Lb ws Latm Lws Lseq
(5)
Ltp ws atm Lt ws Latm Lws Lseq
The value of perceived luminance of pavement and perceived luminance of target is influenced by
physiological and psychological factors of the driver, and the glare feel degree K and the minimum
perceived contrast Cm can be quantitative represented; considering the various factors affecting the driver's
vision of actual driving, reflects the influence degree of the air cleaner, the front windshield of the
automobile, and the influence of scene brightness the driver in front of the vision and goals of the road, so
that the perceived brightness concept closer to the actual driving situation. Therefore, this paper suggests
using perceived contrast display coefficient, as one of the main evaluation index of highway tunnel
lighting quality. The testing point of pavement reflection brightness and small target detection to detect the
surface light brightness ratio is proportional to the coefficient of proportionality for 0/, as in formula (6) :

33
 Revista de la Facultad de Ingeniera U.C.V., Vol. 32, N10, pp. 32-37, 2017

(6)
q cp ( 0 / ) Lbp / Ltp
The qcp is the detection contrast display factor.
During the drivinging time, perceived contrast reflects the display coefficient of various factors,
which effect on the safety of the drivers, and it considered the influence of physiological, physical,
physical factors of driver's heart, so the perceived contrast display coefficient as the highway tunnel
lighting quality evaluation index is appropriate. But wiht the help of contrast display factor of qc, the above
qualitative indexes can be measured by quantitative method, instead of physiological and psychological
factors of drivers.

3. HIGHWAY TUNNEL ILLUMINATION EVALUATION INDEX

3.1 The relationship between the contrast revealing coefficient and perceived contrast
When calculation of pavement and target detection brightness, the first parameter should be identified is
the equivalent veiling luminance, which available as formula (7):
(7)
Lcep m E ev / n
There: m -- the human eye's perception of glare, which related to the size of the object, the time of the cue and
the age of the observer, generally within the range of 4.16 to 29;
Eev -- the illuminance produced by the glare in the eye and at the right angle of the driver's line of sight;
--the angle between the line of sight and the source light, measured by an angle meter;
ncoefficient, when <2, n=2.3- 0.7 lg ( 8)
2, n=2 ( 9)

Figure 2. Equivalent veiling luminance caculation Sketch

In order to calculate the drivers equivalent veiling luminance generated by front view scene brightness, by
use of the polar map superimposed on the tunnel entrance scenery picture(Fig.2), after accumulation the average
brightness of each part of the scene graph, the equivalent brightness can be calculated as formula (10).
2 2 sin cos
Lsep K L ( , )d d (10)
0 1 2
The K coefficient is the same as the coefficient m, which indicates the human eye's sensitivity to glare. CIE
2 sin cos
suggests taking 2.810-3. In formula(10), 1 2
integrand is not a basic function, therefore, numerical

integration method should be adopted to improve the calculation accuracy. After calculating Lije, the average
brightness of each region in the polar coordinates of the driver, we can get:

34
 Revista de la Facultad de Ingeniera U.C.V., Vol. 32, N10, pp. 32-37, 2017

9 12 2 sin cos
1
Lsep K ( Lije ) d (11)
6 i 1 j 1
1 2
With this formula, equivalent veiling luminance can be calculated:
Lije ws atm Lij Lws (12)

There Lije is the average luminance in different areas of the scene.

When the values of each parameter in formula(4) and formula(5) are determined, the drivers perceived
contrast during driving can be calculated:
Ltp Lbp ws atm ( Lt Lb )
Cp (13)
Lbp ws atm Lb ws Latm L ws L seq
In tunnel lighting perceived contrast design, it is desirable to take the contrasts minimum value to
calculate, and CIE recommends Cm as 0.28, so:
Cm= Cp= -0.28 (14)
If the road brightness of the tunnel entrance section is Lth, then:
Lth= Lb (15)
So, formula(13) can be expressed as:
ws Latm Lws Lseq
ws atm
Lb (16)
1 0
( 1) 1
C m qc
This is the formula for calculating the luminance of the tunnel entrance section, which recommended by
CIE in 2004, too.
From the road brightness (4), perceived brightness of target (5), the contrast revealing coefficient (6) and
perceived contrast (13) shows the contrast revealing coefficient and perceived contrast that all the factorss
influence is the same, the relationship between them can be expressed as:

0 1
q cp ( ) (17)
1 Cp
It is seen from the formula(17), that when the contrast value is determined, the perceptible contrast display
coefficient can be immediately calculated, and vice versa.

3.2 Evaluation index system of tunnel lighting quality based on perceived contrast design method
The purpose of the tunnel lighting design is to ensure the safety when the driver through the tunnel at
design speed, so it need a safety stop distance before perceived obstacles ahead of the sight.
Safety stop distance is an important technical index to achieve traffic safety, which is also the goal of
tunnel lighting design.
In order to achieve the goal of a safety stop distance, based on formula(16), the perceived contrast
coefficient must less than a certain value in a situation accordingly, which can ensure the driver find obstacles at
enough distance, and take measures to avoid collision.
Therefore, the perceived contrast display coefficient is one of the major influencing factors for tunnel
lighting valuation index system.
The evaluation indexes of highway tunnel lighting quality include the wall brightness, the luminance
uniformity of the pavement in the middle section and the scintillation frequency produced by the luminaire
arrangement.
Chinese " Guidelines for Design of Lighting of Highway Tunnels " (JTG/T D70/2-01-2014) put forward
regulations of the average brightness of the tunnel wall on both sides of 2 m within the range of not less than the
average brightness of the road, also provides the brightness uniformity in the road in the middle section of lane,

35
 Revista de la Facultad de Ingeniera U.C.V., Vol. 32, N10, pp. 32-37, 2017

as well as Ul longitudinal uniformity of road surface luminance; at the same time, lighting layout should meet
the specific provisions of blinking frequency is less than 2.5 Hz or greater than 15 Hz.
The wall luminance, uniformity and flicker frequency are combined with the perceived contrast display
coefficient to form an evaluation index system for the quality of highway tunnel lighting based on the perception
contrast design method.
There are many specific effects of the system, but can be divided into two categories: one is the factors
influence by physiology and psychology of drivers, such as drivers feelings degree K to the glare, the minimum
perceived contrast Cm and the lighting blinking frequency; the two is factors influence by the physical, such as
the specific evaluation index with target Ct, pavement surface brightness (background) reflective brightness Lb, a
stop distance in atmospheric transmission brightness Latm, windshield brightness Lws, walls brightness Lw of 2m
height on both sides, in the view of scene brightness Lij and a stop distance in atmospheric light the transmission
ratio Latm, the front windshield of the automobile light transmittance of Lws, the luminance uniformity Uo in the
middle section in the tunnel and pavement longitudinal brightness uniformity Ul.

3.3 Applation of perceived contrast design method

Based on formula(16), the luminance of the tunnel entrance section can be calculated. Measurements were
carried out in an actual tunnel with the aid of a vehicle.
Through the measurement of light transmission of the automobiles front windshield, the average value of
ws is 0.77.
Atmospheric brightness near ground takes the intermediate quantity recommended by CIE, the value of
Latm is 200cd/m2. Atmospheric light transmission coefficient near ground can also be selected by CIE
recommended value of 1. Similarly, the recommended value of CIE for front windshield lighting is 100cd/m2.
In order to determine the view of every part of the scene brightness, a highway tunnel entrances luminance
measured in a safety stop distance (100m) at 1.5m height(Fig.3), at a sunny noon in August. Based on formula
(11), equivalent brightness calculated as 76cd/m2.

Figure 3. Equivalent brightness calculation

Consider the automobile windshield glass attenuation and brightness, the brightness of each part according
to the Lije calculated based on formula (12), Lseq=11.12 cd/m2.
Aware of the minimum ratio of Cm can be measured in the laboratory, by using tunnel lighting model
dynamic simulation, on the computer experiment; When the experimental conditions are not available, Cm can
be recommended by CIE is about -0.28.
In the tunnel lighting experiment, the small target size is 0.2m0.2m usually, light reflectance 0=0.2.
From equation (3), this tunnel contrast revealing coefficient qc=0.38.
So, the minimum luminance of tunnel entrance section can calculated by formula (16), with the preceding
parameters and measurement of luminance of road surface and illuminance of vertical surface of small target.
In this case, tunnel entrance luminance Lth can be calculated as formula (18):

36
 Revista de la Facultad de Ingeniera U.C.V., Vol. 32, N10, pp. 32-37, 2017

ws Latm Lws Lseq 0.77 200 100 11.12

ws atm 0.77 1
Lb Lth 174.51cd / m 2
1 0 1 0.2 (18)
( 1) 1 ( 1) 1
C m q c 0.28 0.38
After tunnel entrance section luminance calculated, based on mathematical model of human eye adaptation
curve based on CIE, the brightness of the transition section and the middle section of the tunnel can be easily
calculated.

4.CONCLUSIONS
CIE recommended the perceived contrast design method of highway tunnel lighting, and proposed the
contrast coefficient of qc. The ratio of qc value only related to road surface brightness and small target surface
center vertical illuminance, which is affected by light distribution and light environment, while has nothing to
do with the visual adaptation and physiological and psychological impaction of the driver. In order to overcome
the matter of contrast coefficient can not fully reflect the driver's visual problems, this paper puts forward the
perceived contrast display coefficient qc, and recommended take it as one of the main evaluation indexes of
highway tunnel lighting quality.
Perceived contrast display values reflect the drivers feeling to the glare and minimum perceived contrast,
these are psychological and physiological indexes. And the target brightness, background brightness,
atmospheric brightness, windshield brightness, scene brightness, atmospheric light transmittance and windshield
light transmittance are other 7 objective physical quantities influence influence drivers vision, which can be
determined by luminance meter at the scene. So, the perceived contrast display coefficient appropriately
reflected the driver's visual in the light environment.
Through the measurement and calculation of environmental parameters, based on the formula(16), tunnel
entrance section brightness can be easily obtained. Together with other parameters, The highway tunnel lighting
quality evaluation index system was stablished, and that evaluation system should be more scientific and
applicable.

Acknowledgements
This work was supported by NSFC (51278507).

REFERENCES

Brmond, R., Bodard, V., Dumont, E., Nouailles-Mayeur, A. (2013) Target visibility level and detection
distance on a driving simulator. Lighting Research & Technology. 45(1), pp.76-89.
Cengiz C, Puolakka M, Halonen L. (2015) Reaction time measurement under mesopic light levels: Towards
estimation of the visual adaptation field. Lighting Research & Technology. 47(7), pp.828844.
G Parise, L Martirano, L Parise.(2016) The energetic impact of the lighting system in the road tunnels. IEEE
Transactions on Industry Applications. 52(2), pp.1175-1183.
Huang ke, Weng ji. (2013) A Video Image Analysis System for Tunnel Lighting Automatic Control.
International Journal of Applied Mathematics and Statistics. 51(23), pp.246-253.
Mayeur, A., Brmond, R., Bastien, J.M.C. (2010) Effects of the viewing context on target detection.
Implications for road lighting design. Applied Ergonomics. 41(3), pp.461468.
Mayeur, A., Brmond, R., Bastien, J.M.C. (2010) The effect of the driving activity on target detection as a
function of the visibility level: implications for road lighting. Transport Research. Part F. Trafc
Psychology and Behavior. 13(2), pp.115128.
Ministry of Transport of the Peoples Republic of China (2014) Guidelines for Design of Lighting of Highway
Tunnels. JTG/T D70/2-01-2014
Tideman M, van der Voor M C, van Arem B. (2010) A new Scenario Based Approach for Designing Driver
Support Systems Applied to the Design of a Lane Change Support System. Transportation Research Part
C, 18(2), pp.247-258.
Uchida T, Ohno Y.(2014) Defining visual adaptation field for mesopic photometry: Does surrounding
luminance affect peripheral adaptation? . Lighting Research & Technology. 46(5), pp.520533.
Xu Jingfeng, Zhang Yongfeng, He Ying, Weng Ji. (2016) Research on the Calculation Method of Luminous
Flux Based on the Luminous Intensity Distribution. Light and Lighting. 40(1), pp.11-14.

37