Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

FENDER

Fender is the American english term for the part of an automobile, motorcycle or other vehicles body that frames a wheel well. Its primary purpose is to prevent sand, mud , rocks ,liquids, and other road spray from being thrown into the air by the rotating tire. Fender are typically rigid and can be easily damaged by contact with the road surface

FENDER WHEEL ARCH

The wheel arch is an arch-shaped cavity in the body of a vehicle, which houses a wheel. It has two important functions. It serves for the safety of pedestrians and other cars because the wheel is situated in the body of a vehicle.

The second function is to protect the car from the sticky materials, such as mud, may adhere to the smooth outer tire surface, while smooth loose objects, such as stones, can become temporarily embedded in the tread grooves as the tire rolls over the ground. These materials can be ejected from the surface of the tire at high velocity as the tire imparts kinetic energy to the attached objects. For a vehicle moving forward, the top of the tire is rotating upward and forward and can throw objects into the air at other vehicles or pedestrians in front of the vehicle.

FENDER WHEEL ARCH REGULATION

Japanese Regulation

• The clearance value for tire, hub, cap and fender is to be measured within area K and create clearance check chart to validate
• The clearence value should be greater than 5mm at all positions

US Regulation

• Clearance value is to be checked at all positions from -100° to 100° and create clearance check chart to validate
• The clearence value should be greater than 5mm to satisfy the regulations

European Regulation

• The Clearance should be measured at sections SA, SB, SC, SD and SE and create clearance check chart to validate
• At all the five sections the clearence value should be greater than 10mm to satisfy the European Regulations

Procedure:

• At first create a Datum Plane with respect to the outermost edge of the tyre
• Now we are going to sketch a Horizontal and Vertical line on the Datum plane with respet to the center point
• With respect to SA create a perpendicular line at an angle of 30 name it as SB
• Again with respect to SA create two perpendicular line SC & SE
• SC is at a angle of 50 from SA
• SD is 150mm perpendicular to the x axis
• Then using the Derived line command create a line with respect to SC & SE and name it as SD
• Project a 2D cure on the fender arch and mark the intersection points
• Now project the sketch in the fender Measure the points and tabulate the values

Measuring the distance from the wheel arch to the tyre

SA=14.9490mm

SB=15mm

SC=4.8861mm

SE=2.1125mm

SE=0mm

As the intersection point in the sketch and the intersection point in the projected curve are in the same point and it dosen't have a measurable section

From the above results we can conclude that the Fender does not pass the European Regulations, as the minimum clearance between the Fennder Wheel Arch and Wheel for vehicle and pedestrian safety is 10mm and this design does not meet the requirement.