Self-intersection avoidance and integral properties of generalized cylinders. (Q1852881)

A generalized cylinder is an object bounded by a surface generated by moving a 2D contour curve along a 3D spine curve, possibly scaling the contour along the spine, and two end planes. Several important properties of such objects are presented. In particular, conditions to avoid local and global self-intersection of generalized cylinders are given, and some of their integral properties, such as area and volume, are discussed.