Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge
Fender
Fender is a part of an automobile that frames a wheel well. Its primary purpose is to prevent sand, mud, rocks and other particles to be picked up by wheel in motion and thrown in the air or engine compartment.
It serves a safety purpose for both pedestrian safety and engine compartment safety.
Wheel arch
Wheel arch is a semi circular part of a fender positioned above the wheel of a vechile.
Various regulations for fender design
- European standard
- American standard
The American Standard requires the fender to be at a minimum distance of 10mm from the outer surface of the wheel at points at every 10 degrees from the -20degrees to 180degrees of the wheel center.
- Japanese standard
The Japanese Standard requires the distance between the wheel and fender to be a minimum of 5mm at a line 30* forward and 50* rearward from the centeral wheel axis of axis of wheel and also at 90* axis.
Objective
Our objective is to analyze if the fender wheel arch provided compliance with the european fender design standards.
European design standard for fender wheel arch design
1. At all the 5 section SA-SA SB-SB SC-SC SD-SD SE-SE, CL L value should be greater than 10mm to satisfy the european standards.
2. Wheel guard requirement - the value of "a" shall be more than 5mm at a line 30* forward and 50* rearward from the centeral wheel axis of axis of wheel.
Analysis on design
Observation table
| S.NO | SECTIONS TAKEN AS PER EUROPEAN STANDARDS | REQUIRED CLEARANCE | CLEARANCE OBTAINED ON ANALYSIS | RESULT BASED ON OBSERVATION |
REMARKS |
| 1 | SA - SA | 10 MM | 9.9490 MM | FAIL | |
| 2 | SB -SB | 10 MM | 10 MM | PASS | |
| 3 | SC - SC | 10 MM | . -0.113949 MM | FAIL | this is the measurement obtained on the opposite side. |
| 4 | SD -SD | 10 MM | . -2.8875 MM | FAIL | this is the measurement obtained on the opposite side. |
| 5 | SE -SE | 10 MM | . -5.9973 MM | FAIL | this is the measurement obtained on the opposite side. |
| 6 | Wheel arch gap | 5 mm | 32.5497 MM | PASS |
Changes requried from Class-A Design team
The analysis at sections SC-SC , SD-SD & SE-SE are falling outside the surface of the fender, which can lead to non-safe pedestrians. needs to be reevaluated and design to be changed by the design team to meet the european standards.
CONCLUSION
As per the analysis done on the fender design given, the fender design not compliance with the european standards.