Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

Fender is a part of an automobile that frames the wheel well. It's primary purpose is to prevent sand, mud, rocks, liquids and other road spray from being thrown into the air by the rotating tire in order to protect the body of the automobile and most importantly pedestrian safety.

Fender wheel Arc is an arch shaped cavity in the body of the vehicle which houses the vehicle.

For pedestrian's safety and automobile's safety the wheels must be always be places inside the Fender as if the wheels are present outside the fender chipping will be more.

Different regions have different regulations for the fender wheel arch design.

In this assignment we will evaluate a Fender for the Wheel Arch region as per the European and suggest whether the fender will pass the standard or not.

EUROPEAN STANDARD OF WHEEL ARCH EVALUATION:

We need to calculate the clearance distance 'L' for all the five points as shown in the figure above and at all the five sections the clearance value must be greater than 10mm to satisfy the European regulations.

EVALUATING THE WHEEL ARCH REGION:

1. CREATING THE TRACE POINTS AS PER THE STANDARDS

2. PROJECTING THE 5 POINTS ON THE 3D SURFACE OF THE FENDER TO CALCULATE THE CLEARANCE

SA

SB

SC

SD

SE

TRACE POINTS	REQUIRED CLEARANCE (mm)	CLEARANCE (mm)
SA	10	9.9490
SB	10	10.000
SC	10	-0.113949
SD	10	-2.9112
SE	10	-5.9973

From the above table we can clearly say that the only point 'SB' satisfies the European standards and all other points does not satisfy the standards as except point SB no other point has a clearance of 10mm.

CONCLUSION:

Only point SB has a clearance of 10mm and rest other points does not have a clearance of 10mm and also we can say that after point SC the wheel remains outside the fender which will affect the safety of both the car and the pedestrian.

As all the five points does not have a positive clearance of 10mm so it does not satisfy the European Standards and hence it fails the European Standards of Wheel Arch Area.