The flexible structure of photonic crystal fibre not only offers novel optical properties but also brings some difficulties in keeping the fibre structure in the fabrication process which inevitably cause the optical properties of the resulting fibre to deviate from the designed properties.Therefore,a method of evaluating the optical properties of the actual fibre is necessary for the purpose of application.Up to now,the methods employed to measure the properties of the actual photonic crystal fibre often require long fibre samples or complex expensive equipments.To our knowledge, there are few studies of modeling an actual photonic crystal fibre and evaluating its properties rapidly.In this paper,a novel method,based on the combination model of digital image processing and the finite element method,is proposed to rapidly model the optical properties of the actual photonic crystal fibre.Two kinds of photonic crystal fibres made by Crystal Fiber A/S are modeled.It is confirmed from numerical results that the proposed method is simple,rapid and accurate for evaluating the optical properties of the actual photonic crystal fibre without requiring complex equipment. The flexible structure of photonic crystal fiber not only offers novel optical properties but also brings some difficulties in keeping the fiber structure in the fabrication process which inevitably cause the optical properties of the resulting fiber to deviate from the designed properties. Beforefore, a method of evaluating the optical properties of the actual fiber is necessary for the purpose of application. Up to now, the methods employed to measure the properties of the actual photonic crystal fiber often require long fibers samples or complex expensive equipments. To our knowledge, there are few studies of modeling an actual photonic crystal fiber and evaluating its properties rapidly. In this paper, a novel method, based on the combination model of digital image processing and the finite element method, is proposed to rapidly model the optical properties of the actual photonic crystal fiber . Two kinds of photonic crystal fibers made by Crystal Fiber A / S are modeled. It is confirmed from nume rical results that the proposed method is simple, rapid and accurate for evaluating the optical properties of the actual photonic crystal fiber without requiring complex equipment.