Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

Fender:

Fender is a part of an automobile, motorcycle or other vehicle body that frames a wheel well. Its primary purpose is to prevent sand, mud, rocks, and other road spray from being thrown into the air by the rotating tire. Fenders are typically rigid and can be damaged by contact with the road surface.

The main purpose of fenders on cars is that they shield the wheels and they protect the passengers, the pedestrians, and the other vehicles from the stones, mud, and other debris that can fly in the air because of the speeding rotating wheels while the car is running.

Wheel arch:

1. It is a curved part of the fender positioned right above the wheel.
2. The wheel arch is designed such that it protects both the pedestrian and car cabin from the mud, water rocks and other road spray.
3. Different countries have different wheel arch regulations in place, and the wheel arch design has to comply with them to be deemed usable in that country.
4. For avoiding design alternations of the same vehicle to meet the different regulations in different countries, the maximum values of the concerned regulation parameters are taken into consideration for design purpose.

Fender wheel arch regulations:

European regulations:

1. The clearance ‘L’ should be measured at sections SA, SB, SC, SD AND SE and create clearance check chart to validate.
2. At all the five sections the value of L should be greater than 10mm to satisfy the European regulations.
3. Wheel guard requirements: the value of ‘a’ should be more than 5mm at line 30degrees forward and 50 degree rewards from central vertical axis of the wheel.

Calculation of wheel arch area according to European regulations:

1. A datum plane is created at the outermost face of the wheel.
2. The sketch is created on the new datum plane.
3. A horizontal line is drawn across the center of the wheel.
4. A perpendicular line SA is dropped at the center of the wheel.
5. Two lines SB and SC are created at 30degrees forward of SA and 50degrees reaward of SA respectively.
6. A point is created 150mm vertically above the center line.
7. A line SE is drawn from the wheel center and passes from the point created.
8. Another line SD is drawn from the center of the wheel and in the middle of lines SC and SE.

sketch:

Calculation the value of clearance "L":

The clearance "L" as shown in the above figure at all the five sections SA, SB, SC, SD, SE should be greater than 10mm.

1. Measuring "L" for the given wheel and fender at SA

the value of "L" at SA= 9.95mm.

2. Measuring "L" for the given wheel and fender at SB

the value of "L" at SB= 10mm.

3. Measuring "L" for the given wheel and fender at SC

the value of "L" at SC= 0.113mm.

4. Measuring "L" for the given wheel and fender at SD

the value of "L" at SD= -4.701mm.

5. Measuring "L" for the given wheel and fender at SE

the value of "L" at SE= -10.124mm

CLEARANCE "L'" OPTAINED AT SECTION SA, SB, SC, SD, SE.

CONCLUSION:

From the above results we can conclude that the fender doesnot pass the european regulations, as the min clearance L between the fender wheel arch and the wheel for vehicle and pedestrains safety is 10mm and this design doesnot meet the requirements.

GOOGLE DRIVE LINK:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PSoZGks-q9MK6pRhEjoRlLTwiBY_TIiM/view?usp=sharing