Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

Aim: To calculate the Wheel Arch gap at required points and check whether the car passes the European standard.

Solution: 

Fender:

A fender is a part of an automobile, motorcycle, or other vehicle body that frames a wheel well. Its primary purpose is to prevent sand, mud, rocks, and other road sprays from being thrown into the air by the rotating tire. Fenders are typically rigid and can be damaged by contact with the road surface.

The main purpose of fenders on cars is that they shield the wheels and they protect the passengers, pedestrians, and other vehicles from the stones, mud, and other debris that can fly in the air because of the speeding rotating wheels while the car is running.

Wheel arch:

1. It is a curved part of the fender positioned right above the wheel.
2. The wheel arch is designed such that it protects both the pedestrian and car cabin from mud, water rocks, and other road sprays.
3. Different countries have different wheel arch regulations in place, and the wheel arch design has to comply with them to be deemed usable in that country.
4. For avoiding design alternations of the same vehicle to meet the different regulations in different countries, the maximum values of the concerned regulation parameters are taken into consideration for design purposes.

Fender wheel arch regulations:

European regulations:

1. The clearance ‘L’ should be measured at sections SA, SB, SC, SD, AND SE and create a clearance check chart to validate.
2. In all five sections, the value of L should be greater than 10mm to satisfy European regulations.
3. Wheel guard requirements: the value of ‘a’ should be more than 5mm at line 30 degrees forward and 50 degrees rewards from the central vertical axis of the wheel.

Calculation of wheel arch area according to European regulations:

1. A datum plane is created at the outermost face of the wheel.
2. The sketch is created on the new datum plane.
3. A horizontal line is drawn across the center of the wheel.
4. A perpendicular line SA is dropped at the center of the wheel.
5. Two lines SB and SC are created at 30 degrees forward of SA and 50 degrees rearward of SA respectively.
6. A point is created 150mm vertically above the center line.
7. A line SE is drawn from the wheel center and passes from the point created.
8. Another line SD is drawn from the center of the wheel and in the middle of lines SC and SE.

Sketch:

Calculation of the value of clearance "L":

The clearance "L" as shown in the above figure at all the five sections SA, SB, SC, SD, SE should be greater than 10mm.

1. Measuring "L" for the given wheel and fender at SA

the value of "L" at SA= 9.95mm.

2. Measuring "L" for the given wheel and fender at SB

the value of "L" at SB= 10mm.

3. Measuring "L" for the given wheel and fender at SC

the value of "L" at SC= 0.113mm.

4. Measuring "L" for the given wheel and fender at SD

the value of "L" at SD= -4.701mm.

5. Measuring "L" for the given wheel and fender at SE

the value of "L" at SE= -10.124mm

CLEARANCE "L" OBTAINED AT SECTION SA, SB, SC, SD, AND SE.

Conclusion:

From the above results, we can conclude that the fender does not pass the European regulations, as the min clearance L between the fender wheel arch and the wheel for vehicle and pedestrians safety is 10mm and this design does not meet the requirements.

Model Files