Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge
FENDER
- Fender is US English term for the part of an automobile 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 tyre.
- When vehicle is moving, tyres pick up stones and other and hurl them in all directions. Fenders are basically present to prevent any injuries to the pedestrians and contain the motion of these particles.
- Wheel wells tend to be much larger than the diameter of the tyre because they do not move with the tyre suspension and consequently must be large enough to allow the full range motion of the tyre on the suspension without tocuhing the wheel well.
Fender placements in front and rear of a car
Fender
WHEEL ARCH REQUIREMENTS
The placement of the wheel should be inside the fender to prevent the chipping of the engine compartment regions and also for the safety of pedestrians. The requirements vary across different countries. For eg; Japan, Europe and US have different wheell arch requirements each hen compared aming each other.
Our aim is to analyse whether the given wheel arch meets the European requirements or not
Given Wheel arch
EUROPEAN REGULATIONS REQUIREMENT
(1) Measure Clearance L at sections SA-SA, SB-SB, SC-SC, SD-SD and SE-SE and produce clearance check chart to validate.
(2) At all five sections, the clearance L should be greater than 10mm to meet the European regulations.
(3) Wheel guard requirement : The value of a shall be 5mm at a line 30 degrees forward and 50 degress rearward from the central vertical axis of axis of wheel.
Creating sections SA, SB, SC, SD and SE
- A plane is created using the centre point of the wheel and sections are created using sketch , Section SA is created using a line at an angle of 30 deg with ref. to vertical.
- SB is created using line at an agle of 50 deg with ref. to vertical.
- SE is created by creating a point at at distanc eof 150mm with ref. to vertical
Clearance L Measurements at sections
(i) SA-SA
(ii) SB-SB
(iii) SC-SC
(iv) SD-SD
(v) SE-SE
Clearance check chart for analysis
| S no | Section | Clearance L as per regulations (mm) | Measured Clearance L (mm) | Result |
| 1 | SA-SA | >10 | 9.9489 | Fail |
| 2 | SB-SB | >10 | 10 | Fail |
| 3 | SC-SC | >10 | 0.1136 | Fail |
| 4 | SD-SD | >10 | -2.8533 | Fail |
| 5 | SE-SE | >10 | -5.9751 | Fail |
From the obtained values in the above table, it is evident that the provided wheel arch does not meet the European regulations i.e., the clearance L at all five sections should be > 10mm.
Wheel Guard requirement
The value of a shall be 5mm at a line 30 degrees forward from the central vertical axis of axis of wheel.
a value at SB is 43.3264mm
The value of a shall be 5mm at a line 50 degrees rearward from the central vertical axis of axis of wheel.
a value at SC is 37.5040mm
The a value for lines at 30 degress forward and 50 degrees rearward from the central vertical axis of axis of wheel is > 5mm, therefore, the wheel guard requirement meets the European regulations.
Conclusion
The given fender wheel arch doesnot meet the European regulations, even though it meets the wheel guard requirements but it failed to meet the L value reuirements at all five sections.