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Fractal analysis of surface roughness by using spatial data

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  • S. Davies
  • P. Hall

Abstract

We develop fractal methodology for data taking the form of surfaces. An advantage of fractal analysis is that it partitions roughness characteristics of a surface into a scale‐free component (fractal dimension) and properties that depend purely on scale. Particular emphasis is given to anisotropy where we show that, for many surfaces, the fractal dimension of line transects across a surface must either be constant in every direction or be constant in each direction except one. This virtual direction invariance of fractal dimension provides another canonical feature of fractal analysis, complementing its scale invariance properties and enhancing its attractiveness as a method for summarizing properties of roughness. The dependence of roughness on direction may be explained in terms of scale rather than dimension and can vary with orientation. Scale may be described by a smooth periodic function and may be estimated nonparametrically. Our results and techniques are applied to analyse data on the surfaces of soil and plastic food wrapping. For the soil data, interest centres on the effect of surface roughness on retention of rain‐water, and data are recorded as a series of digital images over time. Our analysis captures the way in which both the fractal dimension and the scale change with rainfall, or equivalently with time. The food wrapping data are on a much finer scale than the soil data and are particularly anisotropic. The analysis allows us to determine the manufacturing process which produces the smoothest wrapping, with least tendency for micro‐organisms to adhere.

Suggested Citation

  • S. Davies & P. Hall, 1999. "Fractal analysis of surface roughness by using spatial data," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 61(1), pages 3-37.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jorssb:v:61:y:1999:i:1:p:3-37
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-9868.00160
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    1. Myoungji Lee & Marc G. Genton & Mikyoung Jun, 2016. "Testing Self-Similarity Through Lamperti Transformations," Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, Springer;The International Biometric Society;American Statistical Association, vol. 21(3), pages 426-447, September.
    2. Ladislav Kristoufek & Miloslav Vosvrda, 2014. "Measuring capital market efficiency: long-term memory, fractal dimension and approximate entropy," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 87(7), pages 1-9, July.
    3. Li, Ming, 2017. "Record length requirement of long-range dependent teletraffic," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 472(C), pages 164-187.
    4. Alina Bărbulescu & Cristian Ștefan Dumitriu, 2023. "Fractal Characterization of Brass Corrosion in Cavitation Field in Seawater," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-14, February.
    5. Sönmez, Ercan, 2018. "The Hausdorff dimension of multivariate operator-self-similar Gaussian random fields," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 128(2), pages 426-444.
    6. Li, Yuqiang & Xiao, Yimin, 2011. "Multivariate operator-self-similar random fields," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 121(6), pages 1178-1200, June.
    7. J. Beirlant & A. Berlinet & G. Biau, 2008. "Higher order estimation at Lebesgue points," Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Springer;The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, vol. 60(3), pages 651-677, September.
    8. Feodor M. Borodich & Andrey Pepelyshev & Xiaoqing Jin, 2024. "A Multiscale Statistical Analysis of Rough Surfaces and Applications to Tribology," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-19, June.
    9. George P. Papaioannou & Christos Dikaiakos & Akylas C. Stratigakos & Panos C. Papageorgiou & Konstantinos F. Krommydas, 2019. "Testing the Efficiency of Electricity Markets Using a New Composite Measure Based on Nonlinear TS Tools," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-30, February.
    10. Sun, Ying & Chang, Xiaohui & Guan, Yongtao, 2018. "Flexible and efficient estimating equations for variogram estimation," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 45-58.
    11. Mikkel Bennedsen, 2016. "Semiparametric inference on the fractal index of Gaussian and conditionally Gaussian time series data," Papers 1608.01895, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2018.
    12. Li, Ming & Li, Jia-Yue, 2017. "Generalized Cauchy model of sea level fluctuations with long-range dependence," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 484(C), pages 309-335.
    13. Kristoufek, Ladislav & Vosvrda, Miloslav, 2014. "Commodity futures and market efficiency," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 50-57.
    14. Kenneth J. Falconer, 2002. "Tangent Fields and the Local Structure of Random Fields," Journal of Theoretical Probability, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 731-750, July.
    15. Gneiting, Tilmann, 2002. "Compactly Supported Correlation Functions," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 493-508, November.
    16. Taghreed Alghamdi & Khalid Elgazzar & Taysseer Sharaf, 2021. "Spatiotemporal Traffic Prediction Using Hierarchical Bayesian Modeling," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-18, August.
    17. Wu, Wei-Ying & Lim, Chae Young & Xiao, Yimin, 2013. "Tail estimation of the spectral density for a stationary Gaussian random field," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 74-91.
    18. Lim, S.C. & Teo, L.P., 2009. "Gaussian fields and Gaussian sheets with generalized Cauchy covariance structure," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 119(4), pages 1325-1356, April.
    19. Wu, Dongsheng & Xiao, Yimin, 2009. "Continuity in the Hurst index of the local times of anisotropic Gaussian random fields," Stochastic Processes and their Applications, Elsevier, vol. 119(6), pages 1823-1844, June.
    20. Hong, Yiping & Zhou, Zaiying & Yang, Ying, 2020. "Hypothesis testing for the smoothness parameter of Matérn covariance model on a regular grid," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    21. Ben Slimane, Mourad & Alzughaibi, Imtithal & Algahtani, Obaid, 2024. "On Lp rectangular multifractal multivariate functions," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    22. Wei Sun & Svetlozar Rachev & Frank Fabozzi & Petko Kalev, 2008. "Fractals in trade duration: capturing long-range dependence and heavy tailedness in modeling trade duration," Annals of Finance, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 217-241, March.
    23. Bertaglia, Marco & Joost, Stephane & Roosen, Jutta, 2007. "Identifying European marginal areas in the context of local sheep and goat breeds conservation: A geographic information system approach," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 657-670, June.
    24. Mikkel Bennedsen, 2016. "Semiparametric inference on the fractal index of Gaussian and conditionally Gaussian time series data," CREATES Research Papers 2016-21, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.

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