Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

Wheel Arch Challenge

The wheel arc area is often a cover or shield over the tire around its circumference in order to prevent debris from being flung into the vehicle/BIW area, outside the vehicle, or onto other cars or pedestrians on the road.

Japanese Standards

1. Clearance must be greater than 5 mm in all three positions.

2. Wheel guard requirement: The value of ‘a’ shall be more than 5 mm at a line 30˚ forward and 50˚ rearward from the central vertical axis of the wheel.

USA Standards

1. All values should be greater than 5 mm.
2. Wheel guard requirement: The value of ‘a’ shall be more than 5 mm 30˚ forward and 50˚ rearward from the central vertical axis of the wheel.

European standards for Fender Design

1. In all five sections, the clearance value should be greater than 10 mm.

2. Wheel guard requirement: The value of ‘a’ shall be more than 10 mm at a line 30˚ forward and 50˚rearward from the central vertical axis of the wheel.

Steps -

1. A horizontal and vertical axis is drawn at the wheel center and the respective intersection points on the fender are noted. The vertical axis intersection point is labeled SA.
2. Similar references are drawn at 30 degrees forward and at 50 degrees backward of the normal and are named SB and SC respectively.
3. An intercept of 150mm is drawn perpendicular to the horizontal axis and the normal from that point on the fender gives us SE.
4. The midpoint of the arc cut by SC and SE is considered to give out section SD.
5. The Clearance ‘L’ as shown above is the crucial term here. The objective of the current project is to test whether the given fender and tire specimen is eligible to pass the European Regulation of Fender Design criteria or not.

Observation Table: Sections Clearance Measured (mm)

Test Result

SA	9.9490	Fail
SB	10.0000	Pass
SC	-0.1126	Fail
SD	-2.8468	Fail
SE	-5.9018	Fail

The only value that meets the European standard, SB, is what leads us to the conclusion that the given design cannot receive further approval. In order to pass the fender design, we must make some adjustments and change the curve of the fender so that there is at least a 10mm distance between the fender arc and wheel surface.