Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

Wheel Arch Regulations:

The wheel arch is the semicircular part positioned above the wheel of a vehicle. The design of wheel arch will be different based on countries and the main goal in designing of fender wheel arch should satisfy the regulation and standards as per the countries.

JAPAN REGULATIONS

• The clearance L is more than 5mm should be followed in Japan regulation and standard.
• Take an angle of 30 deg, 50 deg, and 90 deg from the center of the wheel and create vertical.
• Line B, A and C as shown below. L value has been measured between point of B, A, C and edge boundary of fender wheel arch.

EUROPEAN REGULATION STANDARD

• The clearance L will be more than 10mm at the section of SB, SA, SC, SD, SE
• The section SA will be 90 degrees from the center of the wheel
• The section SB will be 30 degrees from the line SA
• The section SC will be 50 degrees from the line SA
• The section SE will be 150mm from the horizontal from the point of center
• The section SD will be the distance between SC and SE

US REGULATION STANDARD

• The section that we are going to measure L will be divided from -10 degree to 190 degree from the center of wheel like shown in fig.
• The clearance L is more than 5mm should be followed in US regulation and standard

Input:

Procedure in NX 12.0:

• The first step is to create the sections SA,SB,SC,SD and SE as per the European Regulations
• Then, create a Datum Plane by taking the outer wheel surface as reference
• Project the sketch on this plane and measure the distance L at various sections
• Tabulate the values obtained and verify the results

Figure 1: Wheel Arch Sketch

Figure 2: Measurement of L at Section SB

Result:

SECTIONS	MEASURED VALUE OF L	REQUIRED VALUE OF L	SATISFY REGULATION
SA	9.9489mm	10mm	NO
SB	10mm	10mm	YES
SC	0.113667mm	10mm	NO
SD	3.4179mm	10mm	NO
SE	7.1890mm	10mm	NO

Conclusion: All the measured values are calculated as per the European regulation and standard on all the five sections. Only the section SB has satisfied the standard. Other than SB, no other section has satisfied the standard. So the European regulation and standard for the current fender is not satisfied. Hence, the fender surface have to change the dimension at the unsatisfied sections.