Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

OBJECTIVE :

Calculate the Wheel Arch gap at required points and check whether the car passes the European standard

GIVEN DESIGN :

INTRODUCTION :

Wheel arch is an semi circular area in the fender, which house the wheel well. there will always be certain gap between wheel and the fender's wheel arch area because there should not be any contact during the wheel suspension. mostly fenders are designed as such that wheel should be housed inside the fender since to avoid chipping of road particles this may causes damages to the vehicle. the design consideration of wheel arch area is varies from region to region.

JAPAN WHEEL ARCH AREA STANDARDS :

• position the centre of the wheel and make a horizontal line on both sides 0 and 180 degree.
• make an angle of 30 degree to the left of centre.
• make another angle of 50 degree to right of centre.
• project those lines to the top view.
• measure those three points where it shows the clearance between the wheel and the fender (L).
• according to japan regulation . there must be more than 5 mm clearance in all the three position.

EUROPEAN WHEEL ARCH AREA STANDARDS :

• position the centre of the wheel and make a horizontal line on both sides 0 and 180 degree.
• make an angle of 30 degree to the left of centre and name it as SB.
• make another angle of 50 degree to right of centre and name it as SC.
• from base of the centre make an angle of 150 mm height and mark it as SE.
• make a centre line between SC and SE , name it as SD.
• the line which is perpendicular to the base line is SA.
• make the projection of all the five lines in the top view.
• measure those points which shows the clearance between the wheel and fender (L) .
• according to european regulation, there must be more than 10 mm clearance in all five points.

US WHEEL ARCH AREA STANDARDS :

• same procedure also follows for US standards but measurement is taken for every 10 dgree.
• where the measuring line starts from 340 degree to 190 degree.
• project all those line in the top view.
• measure the 22 points which shows the clearance between the wheel and fender (L).
• according to US regulation, there must be 5 mm clearance in all 22 points.

WHEEL ARCH GAP CALCULATION ACCORDING TO EUROPEAN STANDARDS :

• the sketch has been made according to the european standards

• the clearance gap between the point SB and outer edge of the fender is 10 mm

• the clearance gap between the point SA and outer edge of the fender is 9.9489 mm

• the clearance gap between the point SC and outer edge of the fender is - 0.113670 mm

• the clearance gap between the point SD and outer edge of the fender is - 2.8794 mm

• the clearance gap between the point SE and outer edge of the fender is - 5.9755 mm

SECTIONS	REQUIRED CLEARANCE IN MM	OBTAINED CLEARANCE	FENDER AND WHEEL POSITION	RESULT
SB	10	10	WHEEL LIES INSIDE THE FENDER	PASS
SA	10	9.9489	WHEEL LIES INSIDE THE FENDER	FAIL
SC	10	0.113670	WHEEL LIES OUTSIDE THE FENDER	FAIL
SD	10	2.8794	WHEEL LIES OUTSIDE THE FENDER	FAIL
SE	10	5.9755	WHEEL LIES OUTSIDE THE FENDER	FAIL

CONCLUSION :

according to european standards , there must be a clearance of more than 10 mm in all 5 points. from the above given design except the point SB all other points fall under the clearance of 10 mm . so the above design does not satisfy and fails in european wheel arch standard.