Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

Aim

Calculate the Wheel Arc area in Europe standard and prove that whether the car will meet the the requirements of the standards.

FENDER

• Fender is the US English term for the part of an automobile (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.

• When vehicle is moving tyres pick up stones and others and hurt them in all directions. Fenders are basically present to prevent any injuries to pedestrians and contain the motion of these particles.
• More elaborate designs include fender skirts for enclosing the outside edge of the wheel well, and stylized pontoon fenders for exposed fenders

Wheel arch

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.

Types of wheel arch regulations.

• Japanese regulation
• European regulation
• US regulation

Japanese regulation requirement

• Measure clearance L of tire,hub, cap & fender in three different positions within area K and produce clearance check chart to validate

• Clearance must be greater than 5 mm in all the three positions.
• Wheel guard reqmt: 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.

European regulation requirements

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 reqmt: 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 REGULATION REQUIREMENTS

• 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.

CALCULATION

For calculation of clearance between Wheel Arch and Wheel we have to create a sketch on the outer most face of the wheel. The procedure of which is given below.

• A Datum Plane is created at the outermost face of the wheel.
• The sketch is created on the new Datum Plane.
• A Horizontal line is drawn across the centre of the wheel.
• A perpendicular line SA is dropped at the centre of the wheel.
• Two lines SB and SC are created at 30° forward of SA and 50° rearward of SA respectively.
• A point is created 150mm vertically above the centre line.
• A line SE is drawn from the wheel centre and passes from the point created.
• Another line SD is drawn from the centre of the wheel and in the middle of lines SC and SE.

SB-10 mm

SA-9.949 mm

SC-0.11 mm

SD-2.887mm

SE-5.997 mm

Measuring the clearance vlaue'a' for Wheel Guard Requirement

i) Clearance 'a' at 30° line SB

a=46.13 mm

ii.) Clearance 'a' at 50° line SC

a=38.54mm

conclusion

Section	L(>10mm)	Result	a(>5mm)	Result
SA-SA	9.949 mm	FAIL
SB-SB	10 mm	PASS	46.13 mm	pass
SC-SC	0.11 mm	FAIL	38.54 mm	pass
SD-SD	2.887mm	FAIL
SE-SE	5.997 mm	FAIL

From the above results we can conclude that the Fender does not pass the European Regulations, as the minimum clearance L between the Fennder Wheel Arch and Wheel for vehicle and pedestrian safety is 10mm and this design does not meet the requirement.