High Value Manufacturing: Advanced Research in Virtual and Rapid Prototyping

and values computed as planar dimensions (2D), on

the assumption that orthogonal projections of fractals

onto a lower-dimensional subspace retain the original

non-integer features (Mandelbrot, 1982). In addition,

although we used different procedures to project the

3D vascular geometry onto a 2D level, the FD values

depicted reciprocal consistency. This result was sup-

ported by the observation that an identical scale factor

was measured between at least three of the four vessel

orders constituting the real intra-glandular network.

Finally, computer simulation revealed that a specific

intra-glandular vessel type (primarily the 3rd order

branch) was sufficient to describe the occupation of

space, and spatial complexity of the entire gland. Res-

olution limits ...