Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge
Objective:
To Calculate the Wheel Arch gap at required points and check whether the car passes the European standard.
Fender wheel Regulations:
Fender is the American English term for the part of an automobile, motorcycle or other 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. In order to avoid these issues automotive safety authorities have come up with standards and regulations for the design of fenders and the wheel arch gaps. There are different regulations which depends upon the road conditions of the country for which the car is made. In this presentation we gonna calculate the wheel gaps according to the European standards.
According to European standards , the wheel should be 10mm inside the wheel arc area. i.e. there should be a clearance of 10mm between the wheel and the fender wheel arc when viewed from the top side of the curve. . Also, there should be a gap of more than 5mm between the tyre and wheel arc when viewed from the side view of the car. The value of 10mm is calculated at different points of the car by drawing a 30 deg and 50 deg lines from the center of the wheel.
Calculation:
i) Value of SB
L = 10mm
ii) Value of SA
L= 9.8 mm
iii) Value of SC
L = 0.1 mm
iv) Value of SD
Here the wheel protrudes outside the fender L = -2.8mm
v) Value of SE
L = -5.9 mm
Vi) Value of a at SB and SC
But for wheel guard requirement the value of a is more than 5mm which satifies the wheel guard requirement.
| Description | Value of L (mm) | Pass/Fail |
| SA | 9.9 | Fail |
| SB | 10 | Fail |
| SC | 0.113 | Fail |
| SD | -2.8 | Fail |
| SE | -5.9 | Fail |
Conclusion:
It is evident from the table values that the given design does not pass the European standard tests.