Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

AIM: - To evaluate the wheel arch gap of the given class A as per the European standards.

OBJECTIVE: - calculating the clearance of the wheel arch for 10 mm both horizontally and vertically with respect to the wheel.

THEORY:-

Fender are aesthetic part of a vehicle which covers the wheel and body of the vehicle, it’s also helps in improvising the aerodynamics of the vehicle. Fender also provides protection to engine and other components of the body from water, mud, rocks and other debris. Fenders are mainly made of sheet metals and in some performance vehicle it is made out of carbon fibers and other non conventional light weight polymers. Fenders also ensure the safety of the pedestrian during the crash scenario.

There are some mandatory regulation regarding the wheel arch design at various countries, mainly we will be looking at Japan , European and USA regulation, moreover if we follow the European regulation it will clear all the other regulation as all the minimal requirement falls under the European standard regulation.

Japan Regulation

USA Regulation

European Regulation

European regulation requires that the wheel arch should clear the vertical gap and horizontal gap between the wheel and fender must be minimum 10mm at the given points.

So for the study of the wheel we take the outline of the fender arch and the wheel and draw five lines from the center of the wheel (O), we name it as SA SB SC SD SE. The SA line is drawn perpendicular to the O, the SB line is drawn at an angle of 30* towards the bumper direction, the SC line

is drawn at an angle of 50* from SA towards the door side, the SE line is drawn from O and a height of 150mm from the horizontal axis of the wheel then in between the SC and SE line at the midpoint the SD line is created.

As per the European standards the points created by the lines at both the fender arch and wheel should be clearing the gap of 10mm.

PROCEDURE:-

On XY plane the projection of the wheel and fender arch is taken then the points are created on both the projection with the help of lines created from the centre of the wheel as per the European standards. In this way the vertical clearance is measured, for the horizontal clearance a new plane is created with respect to the wall of the wheel and all the lines are projected on the new plane to measure the clearance horizontally respectively.

Vertical clearance

As we observe from the figure the respective data-

SA clears 25.99mm

SB clears 43.64mm

SC clears 38.36mm

SD clears 43.53mm

SE clears 49.68mm

From the data we can clearly say that the wheel fender arch clears all the clearances of 10mm vertically

Horizontal clearance

As we observe from the figure the respective data-

SA clears 9.94mm

SB clears 10mm

SC clears 0.11mm

SD clears 3.43mm

SE clears 7.22mm

From the above data we observe that only SB has the clearance of 10mm inwards, SA has a considerable clearance of 9.94mm and rest of the lines are have the clearance in the outward direction of the fender which is violation of the standard regulation.

CONCLUSION:-

So the fender arch is not correct and needs to be modified, the A surface needs to be modified in the horizontal direction to meet the European regulation.