Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

Fender wheel Arch

Objective:

Study of wheel arch and check whether the car will pass the standards or not using Wheel arch regulations.

Introduction:

Fender is the curved parts which covers and shield the heel side of the vehicle. Its main purpose is to prevent from the road debris thrown by the rotating tyre either inwards into the vehicle body or outwards to the surrounding causing damage.

Wheel Arch is the semicircular part positioned above the wheel of a vehicle. It is an integrated part of a fender assembly. The wheel arch area has some standard to measure the clearance between the tyre and fender. If the tyre lies outside the fender, it throws more chipping cause damage to pedestrian and to a car. To have a pedestrian’s safety in mind, we need position the tyre inside the fender. For that we have different countries standard regulations.

1. European Requirements:

• Measure the clearance L at sections SA, SB, SC, SD, & SE and produce clearance check chart to validate.
• At all the five sections, the clearance L value should be greater than 10mm to satisfy the regulations.
• Wheel guard requirements: the value of ‘a’ shall be more than 5mm at a line 30⁰ forward and 50⁰ rearward from the central vertical axis of the wheel.

2. US Requirements:

• Measure the clearance L values on all positions from -100⁰ to 100⁰ and produce clearance check chart to validate.
• Clearance must be greater than 5mm in all positions.
• Wheel guard requirements: the value of ‘a’ shall be more than 5mm at a line 30⁰ forward and 50⁰ rearward from the central vertical axis of the wheel.

3. Japan Requirements:

• Measure the clearance L of the tyre, hub, cap & fender in three different positions within area K and produce clearance check chart to validate.
• Clearance must be greater than 5mm in all three positions.
• Wheel guard requirements: the value of ‘a’ shall be more than 5mm at a line 30⁰ forward and 50⁰ rearward from the central vertical axis of the wheel.

Analysis:

The following steps are followed in analysis the given fender file for European Standards.

Conclusion:

• Hence, it stated that the given fender design does not completely clear the European standards.
• Minimum Clearance L between the fender wheel arch and vehicle wheel and pedestrian safety is 10mm and this design does not meet the requirements.