Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

AIM

To calculate the wheel arch area of fender and prove whether the car will pass or not by using the Europeon standard.

FENDER

Fender covers a wheel, traditionally to prevent water and mud spray, but is also for aerodynamic purposes. When the vehicle is moving tyre picks up stones & others and hurl them in all directions thus in order to prevent pedestrians from these stones fender are used.

WHEEL ARCH OR WHEEL WELL

The wheel arch is an integerated part of fender assembly. It is an semi circular part which is positioned above the wheel of a vehicle. In some countries, it is also called as an inner fender. 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 or stones, dirt, sand, snow etc. from getting thrown into the vehicle or BIW area as well as outside the vehicle and into other vehicles or pedestrians on the road.

WHEEL ARCH AREA DEPENDS UPON THE VARIOUS REGULAION

• EUROPEON REGULATIONS
• JAPAN REGULATIONS
• US REGULATIONS

The Europeon regulation requires a pre determined clearance or a minimum distance of 10mm. To be maintained between the fender and respective tyre at particular points along the tyre profile as shown below:

Europe Standard

Fig: Wheel Arch

• A horizontal and vertical axis is drawn from the centre of the wheel.
• The vertical axis intersection point is labelled as SA.
• Similar referances are drawn at 30 degree to the left and 50 degree to the right of the section SA and are named SB and SC respectively.
• A line of 150mm is drawn perpendicular to the horizontal axis and the normal from that point on the fender gives us SE.
• And then using a command in Derived lines select the midpoint of arc cut by the sections SC and SE results in new section SD.
• The value of "L" at each section and the value of "a" are found out to determine whether the fender satisfies the Europeon standards as shown in below:

'L' value at section SA

'L' value at section SB

'L' value at section SC

'L' value at section SD

'L' value at section SE

As per the Europon standards, the value of 'L' should be greater than 10mm. But at setion SB , the value of 'L' is equal to 10mm and other sections SA, SC, SD, SC value is less than 10mm. So it does not satisfy the condition L>10mm to meet the Europeon standards in any of the sections.

'a'value at section SB

'a' value at section SC

As per the Europeon standards the 'a' value is greater than 5mm at sections SB & SC. So it is satisfy the vertical clearance value.

COMPARISION TABLE OF "L" VALUE

"L" is means that minimum distance of 10mm to be maintained between the fender and the respective tyre. It is a horizontal distance.

S.NO	SECTION	REQUIRED CLEARANCE IN MM	MEASURED CLEARANCE IN MM	REMARKS
1	SA	10 mm	9.9490 mm	FAIL
2	SB	10 mm	10.000 mm	PASS
3	SC	10 mm	0.1139 mm	FAIL
4	SD	10 mm	2.8748 mm	FAIL
5	SE	10 mm	5.9690 mm	FAIL

COMPARISION TABLE OF "a" VALUE

"a" is means that vertical distance of fender and tyre.

S.NO	SECTION	REQUIRED CLEARANCE IN MM	MEASURED CLEARANCE IN MM	REMARKS
1	SB	5 mm	48.0176 mm	PASS
2	SC	5 mm	43.3599 mm	PASS

CONCLUSION

The wheel gap area calculated at the all sections required points checked with Europeon standards.