Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

Challenge - Calculate the Wheel Arch gap at required points and check whether the car passes the European standard.

Introduction:

Car Fender covers the wheel, It is a prominent part especially in the front of older vehicles , in modern cars the design is usually flatter lying against the frame the purpose of the Fender is to hold back debris kicked up by the tyres, when the tyre rotates rocks , depress dust and water are all picked up from the road. ABS[Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene] plastic is used for manufacturing the fender

Types:

• Full bumper type
• Half bumper type

Wheel Arch :

It is a curved part of the fender positioned right above the wheel. The wheel Arch is designed such that it protects both the pedestrian 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.

Regulations that are followed in wheel arch clearance are European ,U.S and Japan.

U.S REGULATIONS:

• Clearance "L" is to be checked at all positions from -100degree to 100degree and create clearance check chart to validate.
• The value of L should be greater than 5mm to satisfy the regulations.
• Wheel guard requirement : The value of "a" should be more than 5mm at line 30degree forward and 50degree rearwards from the central vertical axis of the wheel.

Japan regulations

• The clearance "L" for tire, hub, cap 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 value of "a" should be more than 5mm at line 30degree forward and 50degree rearwards 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 value of L should be greater than 10mm to satisfy the European Regulations.
• Wheel guard requirement : The value of "a" should be more than 5mm at line 30degree forward and 50degree rearwards from the central vertical axis of the wheel.

Calculations of wheel Arch area - European Regulations:

Aim: To calculate the wheel gap area of the given part file and to check, whether the given car fender passes the European regulations.

Procedure:

Given part files are opened in NX CAD software and analysed.

Step1: A datum plane is created in the outermost part of the Wheel.

Step 2: Sketch is created according to the European regulations mentioned above in the picture.

Step 3: A 90 degree line is drawn from the centre of the wheel and named it as SB, from the vertical axis take 30 degree and draw a line name it as A, again from the centre axis take 50 degree and draw a line name it as C, draw a line which is inclined above the horizontal axis whose vertical distance is 150 mm name it as D,draw a line which passes through the midpoint of the line C and D and name it as E.

Step 4: Go to the tab analysis and choose the command measure and start measuring the line which is passes through the Fender from the centre of the wheel and the outer most tip of the Fender which is the distance named as L

Step 5: The distance which is named as L i.e the line, distance from which the line passing from the centre of the wheel and tip of the Fender must be less than 10mm.

step 6: The distance which is named as A i.e the line distance from which the outermost part of the wheel and the outermost part of the fender must be greater than 5mm

Sketches are created according to the dimensions:

2)L-SC

3) SD

4) L-SA

5) L-SE

From the measuing for clearence are given below

for "a" values (constraint A>=5mm):

SB = 43.52 mm (Pass )

SC = 38.30 mm (Pass)

for "L" values (Constraint L>=10mm):

SB-SB = +10.0 mm (Pass)

SA-SA = + 9.96 mm (Fail)

SC-SC = + 3.0 mm (Fail)

SD-SD = + 0.93 mm (Fail)

SE-SE = - 2.29 mm (Fail)

Conclusion :

From the above results we can conclude that the Fender does not pass the European Regulations as the minimum clearance between the fender arch wheel to the outer most wheel is 10 mm and this design does not meet the this minimum clearance so this fender design is fail for the European Regulation standard.