Modelling of complex fractal objects for aesthetic product development

C.L. Li, Y.C. Yeung, W.K. Chiu and K.M. Yu

International Journal of Product Development, 2007, vol. 4, issue 3/4, 207-224

Abstract: Fractal geometry has been used for modelling natural objects that cannot be described by Euclidean geometry, and is also employed in aesthetic product design. However, the contemporary Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) systems are well developed only for semi-analytical and free-form objects, and they cannot deal with aesthetic appealing objects efficiently. As a result, new data structure or representation model has to be introduced in order to model and process the fractal geometry effectively in Euclidean-based CAD/CAM system. In this paper an algorithm is proposed for generating a 3D complex fractal from its mathematical models. To represent the 3D complex fractal object model in a CAD system, a voxel-based model is introduced. To fabricate a physical fractal object, Layered Manufacturing (LM) technology is employed. The geometrical information of the fractal object is extracted from its voxel-based model and the LM tool path can be generated accordingly. Applying the proposed algorithm, the fabrication of a fractal object can be realised.

Keywords: complex fractals; layered manufacturing; voxels; voxel-based models; object modelling; aesthetics; product development; fractal geometry; product design; CADCAM; Euclidean CAD. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=12492 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijpdev:v:4:y:2007:i:3/4:p:207-224

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Product Development from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().