Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

FENDER :

• Fender is a part of an automobile, motorcycle or other vehicle body that frames a wheel well (the fender underside). Its primary purpose is to prevent sand,mud,rocks,liquids and other road spary from being thrown into the air by the rotating fire.
• 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 pedestrains, and the other vehicles from stones, mud, liquid, and other debris that can fly in the air because of the speeding rotating wheels while the car is running.

WHEEL ARCH :

• It is a curved part of the fender positioned right above the wheel. The wheel arch is designed such that it protect both the pedestrain and car cabin from mud, water rocks and other road spray.
• 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.
• For avoiding design alternationsof the same vehicle to meet the different regulations in different countries, the maximum valves of the concerned regulations parameters are taken into consideration for design purpose.

FENDER WHEEL ARCH REGULATIONS :

JAPAN REGULATIONS :

 

• The clearance  'L' for tire, hub, cab and fender is to be measured within area K and create clearance check chart to validate
• The value of L should be greater than 5mm at all positions.
• Wheel guard requirement :The valve of 'a' should be more than 5mm at line 30deg forward and 50 deg rewards from the central vertical axis of the wheel.

EUROPEAN REGULATIONS :

 

• The clearance 'L' should be measured at sections SA-SA, SB-SB, SC-SC, SD-SD and SE-SE and create clearance check chart to validate.
• At all the five sections the valve of L should be greater than 10mm to satisfy the European REGULATIONS.
• Wheel guard requirement: The valve of 'a' should be more than 5mm at line 30deg forward and 50deg rewards from the central vertical axis of the wheel.

US REGULATIONS:

 

• Clerance 'L' is to be checked at all positions from- 100deg to 100 deg and create clearance check chart to validate. The value of L should be greater than 5mm to satify the regulations.
• Wheel guard requirement: The value of 'a' should be more than 5mm at line 30deg forward and 50deg rewards from the central axis of the wheel. 

Calculation of wheel arch area according to European Regulations :

For calculation of clearance between wheel arch and wheel we have to create a sketch on the outer most face of the wheel.The procedure of which is given below:

• A datum plane is created at the outermost face of the wheel. The sketch is created on the new Datum plane. A Horizontal line is drawn across the centre of the wheel.
• A perpendicular line SA is dropped at the centre of the wheel. Two lines SB and SC are created at 30deg forward of SA and 50deg rearward of SA respectively.
• A point is created 150mm vertically above the centre line. A line SE is drawn from the wheel centre and passes from the point created.Another line SD is drawn from the centre of the wheel and in the middle of lines SC and SE.

CALCULATING THE WHEEL ARCH OF EUROPEAN CHALLENGE:

 

Clearance at SA= 9.949mm

 

Clearance at SB= 10.00mm

 

Clearance at SC= 0.11366mm

 

 Clearance at SD= 3.3964mm

 

Clearance at SE= 7.1327mm

 

 

CONCLUSION :

• From the above observations the positions SA,SC,SD,SE are less than 10mm which is necessary to pass the european standards .Hence, the front fender wheel arch does not pass the european standard.