Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

Aim

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

Fender

Fender is the part of a vehicle body that frames a wheel well (the fender underside). Its primary purpose is to prevent sand, mud, rocks, liquids, and other road spray from being thrown into the air by the rotating tire. Fenders are typically rigid and can be damaged by contact with the road surface.

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. The fender prevents this from happening.

Fender - Wheel arch Regulations

The wheel arch is the semicircular part positioned above the wheel of a vehicle. 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 or region. The different regulations are:

1. Japan regulations

2. European regulations

3. U S 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 and the value of L should be greater than 5mm at all positions
• Wheel guard requirement: The value of ‘a’ should be more than 5mm at line 30° forward and 50° 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 and at all the five sections the value of L should be greater than 10mm to satisfy the European Regulations
• Wheel guard requirement: The value of ‘a’ should be more than 5mm at line 30° forward and 50° rearwards from the central vertical axis of the wheel.

U S Regulations

• Clearance ‘L’ is to be checked at all positions from -100° to 100° and create clearance check chart to validate and the value of L should be greater than 5mm to satisfy the regulations
• Wheel guard requirement: The value of ‘a’ should be more than 5mm at line 30° forward and 50° rearwards from the central vertical axis of the wheel.

Sketch on the input given

European Standard analysis

1. Clearance L at SA - SA

We get L = 9.9489mm

2. Clearance L at SB - SB

We get L = 10mm

3. Clearance L at SC - SC

We get L = 0.1137mm

4. Clearance L at SD - SD

We get L = 2.8787mm

5. Clearance L at SE - SE

We get L = 5.9755mm

Wheel Guard Requirement

1. Clearance 'a' at 30° line SB

a = 43.3772mm

2. Clearance 'a' at 50° line SC

a = 38.4359mm

Result

Section	Clearance L > 10mm	Result	Clearance a > 5mm	Result
SA - SA	9.9489	FAIL
SB - SB	10	PASS	43.3772	PASS
SC - SC	0.1137	FAIL	38.4359	PASS
SD - SD	2.8787	FAIL
SE - SE	5.9755	FAIL

Conclusion

From the above results we can conclude that the Fender does not pass the European Regulations.