A bainite sheaf does not have a simple geometry, making it difficult to characterise or calculate its fundamental properties, such as the total amount of interfacial area per unit volume. The sheaf is, in the language of fractals, a rough object in which the area is a function of how the measurements are made. Micrographs taken at a variety of resolutions have been analysed to reveal how the area scales with resolution. It is found that although the interface is rough, it is far less so when compared with what might be expected from a fractal object. In other words, the ideal fractal, where self-similarity propagates over an infinite range of observation does not apply to the bainite sheaf.
