Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge
Title: Calculation of Wheel Arch area gap to check whether car passes the European Standards.
Objective:
The objective of this project is to calculate the Fender Wheel Arch area gap to check if it qualifies the standards set by European Union.
Introduction :
Fender Wheel Arch is the semicircular arc shaped cavity which covers or houses the wheel.
It prevents the mud,stones,dust particles on the road from chipping into the air which causes damages to other vehicles and also as wel as for the pedestrains.
By properly fitting the wheel with optimal gap inside the fender,we can avoid the chipping of stones and sand into engine compartment as well as from throwing outwards.
For optimal placement of wheel arc and wheel, different nations proposed different methods of calculations and different regualtions according to their local road conditions.
Wheel Arch Regulations Of Different Countries:
-Japanese Standards:
Procedure:
-First we should mark the centre of the tyre and draw an angle 30 degree forward and 50 degree backward from the centre line.
-Then plot those lines by extending to the top view and the distance between fender outer curve,end profile the tyre should be measured.
-The value at all the three points should be greater than 5 mm and also from the distance from the wheel guard to tyre vertically.
US Standards :
Procedure:
-The procedure of measuring distance is same as Japanese one but as per US standards it should measured for every 10 degrees from -20 to 100 degress.
-Then plot those lines by extending to the top view and the distance between fender outer curve,end profile the tyre should be measured.
-The value at all the points should be greater than 5 mm and also from the distance from the wheel guard to tyre vertically.
European Standards :
Procedure:
-This procedure is also same as the other two standards we have discussed before.
-We should draw an 30deg left and 50 deg left lines from center point of wheel.
-Draw the line with wheel center as starting point and vertical distance as 150 mm from horizontal reference line at 180 deg.
-Mark that joining line from centre (SE) and take midpoint of the 50 degree line and SE Line,from it draw another line mark with an aphabet(SD).
-From all the five points Clearance should be greater than 10 mm and wheel guard requirement with value 'a' shall be more than 5 mm at a line 30 degree and 50 degree from the central vertical axis of the wheel.
Note : In the images above measurements of clearance are shown as value of 'z'.
Note : In the images above measurements of clearance are shown as value of 'z'.
By checking all the values according to the Europena standards in the CAD software for the given Fender Wheel Arch skin data.The results are tabulated below:
Table:
| S.NO | POINTS |
REQUIRED CLEARANCE (mm) |
AVAILABLE CLEARANCE (mm) |
REMARKS(Pass/Fail) |
| 1. | SA | 10 | 9.957 | Fail |
| 2. | SB | 10 | 10 | Pass |
| 3. | SC | 10 | 0 | Fail |
| 4. | SD | 10 | 2.937 | Fail |
| 5. | SE | 10 | 5.881 | Fail |
Conclusion:
The calculation of wheel arch gap is done according to the European Regualtions and by analysing the results we can say that only one point SB meets the requirement and remaining four points has gap less than 10 mm.So we need to send the surface to the styling team to rectify these errors.