Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

To calculate the wheel arch area of the given fender and analyse whether the fender will pass the european regulation.

Introduction:

Wheel Arch is the shaped part of the bodywork of a car or other vehicle that allows the wheel to be accessed, and in the case of front wheels, enable them to be steered. It is the semi-circular part that is positioned above the wheel of the vehicle. It should have the sufficient clearance between the tyre and the wheel arch so that it does not touch the wheel arch area.

standards that are followed by automobile industries.

Japanese Standards:

1. Clearance must be greater than 5 mm in all the three positions.
2. Wheel guard requirement: The value of ‘a’ shall be more than 5 mm at a line 30˚ forward and 50˚ rearward from the central vertical axis of wheel.

European Standards:

1. At all five sections the clearance value should be greater than 10 mm.
2. Wheel guard requirement: The value of ‘a’ shall be more than 10 mm at a line 30˚ forward and 50˚rearward from the central vertical axis of wheel and 150 mm of height from the horizontal line.

Us Standards:

1. All values should be greater than 5 mm.
2. Wheel guard requirement: The value of ‘a’ shall be more than 5 mm 30˚ forward and 50˚ rearward from the central vertical axis of wheel.

Sketch for wheel arch fender:

Measurments for wheel arch:

Tabulation :

Sections	Clearance Measured (mm)	Test Result
SB	10	Pass
SC	3.101	Fail
SD	0.321	Fail
SE	4.734	Fail

Conclusion:

The given model is analysed according to the European Standards and from the above table it is clear that the fender does not pass the European standards at all sections except at 30 deg angle SB.

I suggest that the model should be sent to the styling team and they should modify the curvature of the fender in such a way that there should have a minimum clearance of 10 mm.