Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

INTRODUCTION :

* Fender is the US english term of an automobile (vehicle body) that frames a wheel well

* Its primary purpose is to prevent sand,mud,rocks,liquids and other road spray from being through into the air by the rotating tire.when vehicles is moving tries pick up stones and others and hurl them in all directions fenders are basically present to prevent any injuries to pedstraians and contain the motion of these particles.

* Most passanger automobiles have four fenders one over each wheel for vehicles with a narrow car body that expose the tire the fenders is an exposed curve over the top of the tire for wide body vhicles that cover the tire fender forms the wheel surroundings the tire and is not directly visible from above the car body.

WHEEL ARCH:

* It is a curved part of the fender positioned right above the wheel .

*The wheel arch is designed such that it protects both the pedestrain and car cabin from mud water rocks and other road spray.

* Different countries have different wheel arc regulations in place and the wheel arch designed has to company with them to be deemed usable in the country.

* For avoiding design altrations of the same vehicle to meet the different regulations in different contries the maximum values of the concerned regulations parameters are taken into consideration for design purpose.

FENDER WHEEL ARCH REGULATIONS:

JAPAN REGULATIONS:

* The clearance 'L' for tire ,hub ,cap and fender is to be measured within area K and create clearance check chart to validate .

* The value of L should be greater then 5 mm at all positions .

* Wheel gurd requirement the value of 'a' should more then 5mm at all line 30 deg foeward and 50 deg rearwards from the central vertical axis of the wheel .

EUROPEAN REGULATIONS :

* The clearance 'L' should be measured at sections SA-SA, SB-SB,SC-SC,SD-SD,and SE-SE and create clearance check chart to validate .

* At all the fives sections the value of L should be greater then 10 mm to satisfy the european regulations .

* Wheel guard requirement the value of 'a' should be more then 5mm at line 30 deg forward and 50 deg rearwards from the central vertical axis of the wheel

US REGULATIONS:

* Clearance 'L' is to be checked at all positions from -100 deg to 100 deg and create clearance check chart to validate .

* The value of L should be greater than 5mm to satisfy the regulations .

* Wheel guard requirements the value of 'a' should be more than 5mm at line 30 deg forward and 50 deg rearwards from the central vertical axis of the wheel .

Calculation of wheel arch area according to European Regulations

For calculation of clearance between Wheel Arch and Wheel we have to create a sketch on the outer most face of the wheel. The procedure of which is given below.

• A Datum Plane is created at the outermost face of the wheel
• The sketch is created on the new Datum Plane
• A Horizontal line is drawn across the centre of the wheel
• A perpendicular line SA is dropped at the centre of the wheel
• Two lines SB and SC are created at 30° forward of SA and 50° rearward of SA respectively
• A point is created 150mm vertically above the centre line
• A line SE is drawn from the wheel centre and passes from the point created
• Another line SD is drawn from the centre of the wheel and in the middle of lines SC and SE

SKETCH :

Obtaining the clearance L at the designated 5 points

The clearance distance 'L' is calculated at points SA-SA, SB-SB, SC-SC, SD-SD and SE-SE, which should be greater than or equal to 10mm

i.) Clearance 'L' at SA-SA

L = 9.95mm

ii.) Clearance 'L' at SB-SB

L = 10.00mm

iii.) Clearance 'L' at SC-SC

L = 0.00mm

iv.) Clearance 'L' at SD-SD

L = -0.96mm

v.) Clearance 'L' at SA-SA

L = -6.06mm

Measuring the clearance vlaue'a' for Wheel Guard Requirement

i.) Clearance 'a' at 30° line SB

a = 43.36mm

ii.) Clearance 'a' at 50° line SC

a= 38.25mm

Conclusion

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