Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

AIM : To Calculate the Wheel Arch gap at required points and to check whether the car passes the European standard.

FENDER WHEEL ARCH

Wheel Arch is the semi-circular part of the fender positioned above the wheel of the vehicle. The design of the wheel arch of the fender should be such that it must shield wheels and protect both passengers compartment and pedestarians from the projection of watr, mud and stones.The wheel arch area of the fender is usually designed as a cover or shield over the tyre along its perimeter to stop any debris or stones ,dirt,sand,snow,etc,from getting thrown into the vehicle or the BIW area as well as outside the vehicle and onto other vehicles or pedestarians on the road.For the vehicle to has its permit in different countries,the wheel arch of fenders must be compliant with the standards and regulations set by respective countries.

Fender Wheel Arch Regulations :

The different fender Wheel arch regulations are

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.

The European regulations requires a pre-determined clearance or a minimum distance of 10mm to be maintained between the fender and respective tyre at particular points, along the tyre profile as shown below:

US 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.

STEPS FOLLOWED IN CREATING THE SKETCH REQUIREMENT FOR EUROPEAN STANDARDS

1. A Horizontal and vertical axis is drawn from the centre of the wheel.
2. The vertical axis intersection point is labelled as A.
3. Similar references are drawn at 30 degrees to left and 50 degree to the right and named it as B and C respectively.
4. A line of 150mm is drawn perpendicular to the horizontal axis and normal from the normal point on fender which gives point E.
5. The midpoint of the arc cut by the sections C and E results in a new section D.
6. The value of 'L' at each section and the value of 'a 'are found out to detrmine whether the fender satisfies the european standards as shown below.

Calculations of Wheel arch area based on European Regulations :

Value of 'L' at SB section

Value of 'L' at SA section

Value of 'L' at SC section

Value of 'L ' at SD section

Value of ' L ' at SE section

Values of 'a' :

At SB section

At SC section

Results :

The results are tabulated as

SECTION	L(>10mm)	RESULT	a(>5mm)	RESULT
SA-SA	9.9490	FAIL
SB-SB	10	PASS	43.6263	PASS
SC-SC	0.113670	FAIL	38.3599	PASS
SD-SD	2.8875	FAIL
SE-SE	5.9973	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.