Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

Aim :

To design front fendor Wheel Arch Challenge.

Objective :

To calculate the wheel arch area of the given fender and prove whether the car will pass the European Standards or not.

Introduction :

Wheel Arch is the shaped part of the bodywork of a car or other vehicle that allows the wheel to be accessed, and in the case of front wheels, enable them to be steered. It is the semi-circular part that is positioned above the wheel of the vehicle. It should have the sufficient clearance between the tyre and the wheel arch so that it does not touch the wheel arch area.

European standards for Fender Design :

• The wheel Arch area of the fender is usually designed as a cover or shield over the tyre along its perimeter to stop any debris, dirt, etc from getting thrown into the vehicle/ BIW area as well as outside the vehicle and onto other vehicles or pedestrians on the road.
• The European regulation requires a pre determined clearance or a minimum distance of 10mm. to be maintained between the Fender (Front Quarter Panel) and the respective tyre at particular points(5 points/Sections to be exact) along the tyre profile as shown below:

SKETCH :

MEASUREMENT OF DISTANCE :

A :

B :

C :

D :

E :

RESULTS :

Final Analysis :

Sections based on Eur.std	Required Clearance	Actual Clearance	Result	Clearance Needed
A	10mm	9.9489mm	Fail	0.0511mm
B	10mm	10.0000mm	Pass	Nil
C	10mm	0.113683mm	Fail	9.886317mm
D	10mm	2.8763mm	Fail	7.1297mm
E	10mm	5.9770mm	Fail	4.0230mm

CONCLUSION :

From the above result obtained, only at the position SB we got 10mm clearance between fender and wheel tyre outer edges, but at the remaining 4 positions it is less than 10mm clearance which is not acceptable. Hence the design of fender has to be modified to pass the European regulations.