Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

Aim :- To calculate the wheel arch area and prove whether the car will pass the Europian standards or not.

Introduction :-

Wheel Arch

It is a curved portion of the fender body which is placed above the wheel.

It is designed in a such way that it protects the car engine and pedestrian from mud, rocks, and other road debris therefore clearance between wheel front surface and fender is important.

There are different standards for different regions to designed the wheel arch. It depends upon the condition of roads in that specific regions.

In this project we are considering Europian standards to calculate the wheel arch area.

Europian standards :-

As shown in the above figure at all five sections i.e SA, SB, SC, SD, SE clearance 'L' value should be equal to or greater than 10mm to satisfy the Europian regulations.

Wheel guard requirement: The value of 'a' shall be more than 5mm at line 30° forward and 50° reward from the central vertical axis of wheel.

Calculation of wheel arch area according to Europian regulations :-

A datum plane is created at the outermost face of the wheel.

The sketch is created on that datum plane.

horizontal axis is drawn from the center of the wheel.

perpendicular line SA is drawn from the center of the wheel.

Line SB is created at 30° forward of SA.

Line SC is created at 50° reward of SA.

A point is created 150mm above the horizontal line.

Line SE is drawn from the wheel center and coincide with that newly created point.

Line SD is drawn from the center of the wheel and in the middle of line SC and SE.

1) Clearance 'L' at SA :-

L= 9.9490 mm

2) Clearance 'L' at SB :-

L= 10.00 mm

3) Clearance 'L' at SC :-

L= 0.113670 mm

4) Clearance 'L' at SD :-

L= 2.8699 mm

5) Clearance 'L' at SE :-

L= 5.9559 mm

Wheel guard requirement :-

The value of 'a' at line 30° forward from the central vertical axis is 43.6263 mm

The value of 'a' at line 50° reward from the central vertical axis is 38.3597 mm

Results :-

Clearance 'L' at all five sections :-

Wheel guard requirement :-

Conclusion :-

From the above results we can conclude that fender does not pass the Europian standards for wheel arch area as the minimum clearance 'L' requirement does not meet at all sections except section SB.

Suggestion :-

Curvature of the fender should be modify in a such way that minimum clearance should be 10mm at all five sections.