Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

Fender Design - Wheel Arch Challenge

 

Calculate the Wheel Arch gap at required points and check whether the car passes the European standard.

Wheel Arch Area:

• Wheel Arch area of the Fender is generally designed for the purpose of shielding the BIW from stones and other objects /obstacle on the road.
• Wheel Arch is a curved part of the Fender located right above the Wheel.
• Wheel Arch is designed such that it protects both the pedestrian and car cabin from mud, water concrete and other dust pollutant.
• Different countries have different wheel arch regulations and the wheel arch design has to comply with them to be deemed usable in that country.
• For avoiding design modifications of the similar vehicle to meet the different regulations in different countries, the maximum values of the concerned regulation parameters are taken into consideration for design purpose.

To Check the clearance between the Fender and the Wheel, there are certain standards all over the world, they are

American Standard

European Standard

Japanese Standard

 

Calculation of wheel arch area according to European Regulations

 

For calculation of clearance between Wheel Arch and Wheel we have to create a sketch on the outer most face of the wheel.

• 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

 

Sketch

 

Obtaining the clearance L at the designated 5 points

 

The clearance distance 'L' is calculated at points SA-SA, SB-SB, SC-SC, SD-SD and SE-SE, which should be greater than or equal to 10mm

 

• Clearance 'L' at SA-SA

L = 9.95mm

 

• Clearance 'L' at SB-SB

L = 10.00mm

 

 

• Clearance 'L' at SC-SC

L = 0.00mm

 

• Clearance 'L' at SD-SD

L = -0.96mm

 

• Clearance 'L' at SA-SA

L = -6.06mm

 

 

Measuring the clearance vlaue'a' for Wheel Guard Requirement

• Clearance 'a' at 30° line SB

a = 43.36mm

 

• Clearance 'a' at 50° line SC

a= 38.25mm

 

Conclusion

 

SECTION	L(>10mm)	Result	A(>5mm)	Result
SA-SA	9.95mm	FAIL	43.36mm	PASS
SB-SB	10.00mm	PASS
SC-SC	0.00mm	FAIL	38.25mm	PASS
SD-SD	-0.96mm	FAIL
SE-SE	-6.06mm	FAIL

 

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