Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

FENDER DESIGN - WHEEL ARC CHALLENGE

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

OBJECTIVE:

• Study about the different wheel arch gap
• Draw the lines at the required angle and points for the European
• Measure the distance at each angle and mention if the given model pass or

FENDER is an American English term for the part that frames a wheel of an automobile. Its primary function of the fenders is to shields the wheels and protect the passenger the pedestrians and the other vehicles prevent from sand, mud, rocks, liquids and other road spray that can fly in the air because of the rotating tire while the car is running.

The fender is located over the wheels of the vehicle. As such, there are four fenders on a typical vehicle: front right, front left, rear right & rear left. Fenders are typically rigid & can be damaged by contact with the road surface.

TYPES OF FENDER: The type of fender is based upon the area covered i.e., full fender type and half fender type.

FULL FENDER TYPE: Full fender type is traditional type of fender where more material is consumed. This type is used in old design of automobiles where it increases the overall weight and thus reduces performance.

HALF FENDER TYPE: Half fender type is modern design where less material consumption is observed, so productivity increases by reducing size of blank and thus providing more performance.

MATERIAL USED: The most commonly used wheel well are of plastic material. In the olden days, the inner fender or wheel well was made of sheet metal. If the vehicle with metal inner fenders is used there is a good chance that winter salt & moisture have caused them to develop some rust in hard-to-spot areas. Improper repairs after an accident can also accelerate corrosion here as well.

WHEEL ARCH is a curved semicircular part of the fender positioned right above the wheel. The wheel Arch is designed such that it protects both the pedestrian and car cabin from mud, water rocks and other road spray. 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. For avoiding design alterations 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 purpose.

Fender Wheel Arch 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.
• The value of L should be greater than 5mm at all
• Wheel guard requirement : The value of "a" should be more than 5mm at line 30⁰ forward and 50⁰ 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
• 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 30⁰ forward and 50⁰ rearwards from the central vertical axis of the wheel.

US Regulations:

• Clearance "L" is to be checked at all positions from -100⁰ to 100⁰ and create clearance check chart to
• The value of L should be greater than 5mm to satisfy the
• Wheel guard requirement : The value of "a" should be more than 5mm at line 30⁰ forward and 50⁰ rearwards from the central vertical axis of the

Calculations of wheel Arch area - European Regulations

From the given part file we need to open in the NX cad and from the part file they give the fender and the wheel. Now we need to create the Datum plane at the outer most face of the wheel as shown in figure.

After that in that plane we sketch the lines and the give the required angle from the reference of the European standard drawing by using the Rapid dimension as shown in figure.

And using the text give the proper name to the lines and the dimensions are set as per the European standard as shown in the figure.

Then we need to measure the distance from the outer most wheels to the outer most wheel arch for that we add the some points on the face and the angle line.

And now using the analysis tab in the NX Cad in that click simple distance to measure the required distances as the European standard.

for "a" values

SA

SB

SC

SD

SE

for "L" values

SA

SB

SC

SD

SE

STANDARDS –

"a" should be more than 5mm at line 30degree forward and 50degree.

"L" should be greater than 10mm

for "a" values

SA =27.8310 mm

SB = 44.7577 mm

SC = 38.3666 mm

SD = 43.2210 mm

SE = 48.8210 mm

for "L" values

SA-SA = 10.0154mm

SB-SB = 10.0 mm

SC-SC = -0.7516 mm

SD-SD = - 2.9934 mm

SE-SE = - 5.9019 mm

And the results are tabulated which is given below

Section	L(>10mm)	Result	a (>5mm)	Result
SA-SA	10.0154mm	PASS	27.8310mm	PASS
SB-SB	10mm	PASS	44.7577mm	PASS
SC-SC	0.7516mm	FAIL	38.3666mm	PASS
SD-SD	2.9934mm	FAIL	43.2210mm	PASS
SE-SE	5.9019mm	FAIL	48.8210mm	PASS

Conclusion:

From the above results we can conclude that the Fender does not pass the European Regulations as the minimum clearance between the fender arch wheel to the outer most wheel is 10 mm and this design does not meet the this minimum clearance so this fender design is fail for the European Regulation standard.