FENDER DESIGN - WHEEL ARCH CALCULATION

Objective:

• Calculate the Wheel Arc area of European Standard and prove whether the car will pass the standards or Not.

INTRODUCTION:

• 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.

There are two types of fenders, full bumper type, and half bumper type.

Fig 1. Front Fender of an automobile

There are many factors that need to be considered during designing the fenders of the vehicle. One of them is the wheel arch area.

In a fender, the wheel arch is the semicircular part that is positioned above the wheel of the vehicle. While designing the fender care must be taken that the wheel arch of the fender meets the required standards.

Fig 2. Wheel arch area considerations in a fender design

In this report, we will study about:

1. Different standards of the front wheel arch area requirements.
   1. Japanese Standards
   2. European Standards
   3. American Standards
2. Examining the given part considering the European Standards.
3. Checking whether the front fender wheel arch meets the standards.

• Japanese standards ;
  • The clearance ‘L’ between the outer surface of the tire & fender in three different positions within area K as mentioned in the figure below must be greater than 5 mm
  • The value of ‘L’ shall be more than 5 mm at line 30 forward and 50 rearwards from the central vertical axis to the axis of the wheel.

EUROPEAN standards :

• Measure CL L at sections SA-SA SB-SB SC-SC SD-SD SE-SE and produce CL check chart to validate.
• At all five sections the CL L value should be greater than 10 mm to satisfy the European regulations.
• Wheel guard regmt: The value of 'a shall be more than 5 mm at a line 30* forward and 50* rearward from the central vertical axis of axis of wheel

US standards:

• Make clearance check details on all positions from -100* to 100* & make the clearance check table.
• All values should be greater than 5 mm to satisfy the regulations. The value of 'a' shall be more than 5 mm at a line 30* forward and 50*.
• rearward from the central vertical axis of axis of wheel.

Fender wheel arch area calculation:

• • The clearance value 'L' was measured and found to be as follows:

  • Section	Required Clearance (mm)	Measured Clearance ‘L’ (mm)	Remarks
    SB	10	10	Pass
    SA	10	9.95	Fail
    SC	10	0.12	Fail
    SD	10	2.88	Fail
    SE	10	5.98	Fail

  • From the above observations the positions SA SC SD SE are less than 10mm which is necessary to pass the European standards. Hence, the frontfender wheel arch does not pass the European standard.

CONCLUSION


                        Acooding to European requirement the wheel arch is not good for manufacturing ,so styling team oo design team should work on section SC,SD and  SE.