Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

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

Solution:

Fender wheel Regulations:

Fender is the American English term for the 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 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.

Sticky materials, such as mud, may adhere to the smooth outer tire surface, while smooth loose objects, such as stones, can become temporarily embedded in the tread grooves as the tire rolls over the ground. These materials can be ejected from the surface of the tire at high velocity as the tire imparts kinetic energy to the attached objects. For a vehicle moving forward, the top of the tire is rotating upward and forward, and can throw objects into the air at other vehicles or pedestrians in front of the vehicle. In order to avoid these issues automotive safety authorities have come up with standards and regulations for the design of fenders and the wheel arch gaps. There are different regulations which depends upon the road conditions of the country for which the car is made. In this presentation we gonna calculate the wheel gaps according to the European standards.

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.

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.

Calculations of wheel Arch area - European Regulations

1. Create Datum plane in the given Part file:

2. Create Sketch on the Datum plan based on European regulations:

3. Then we need to measure the distance from the outer most wheel to the outer most wheel arch for that we add the some ponits on the face and the angle line as shown in figure.

4. Calculate distance

1. "a" should be more than 5mm at line 30degree forward and 50degree.

2. "L" should be greater than 10mm

From the measuing for clearence are given below:

for "a" values

SB = 43.52 mm

SC = 38.30 mm

for "L" values

SB-SB = +10.0 mm

SA-SA = + 9.96 mm

SC-SC = + 3.0 mm

SD-SD = + 0.93 mm

SE-SE = - 2.29 mm

And the results are tabulated which is given below:

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.