Vehicle Wheel House Outer Panel Rigidity via Integrated Ridgeline
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle rear body structures face a challenge in improving the rigidity around the wheel house while minimizing the increase in body weight, as reinforcement methods often lead to added components and weight.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves forming a ridgeline section through a bulged shape on the wheel house outer, which extends upward and overlaps the inner-side reinforcement, thereby enhancing rigidity without adding extra components. This configuration includes a shelf section above the wheel arch-shaped area and multiple ridgeline sections that extend vertically, effectively supporting the wheel house and suppressing deformation caused by external forces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If reinforcement is provided on each side of the wheel house in the vehicle width direction, then rigidity of the wheel house is improved, but body weight increases due to additional components
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the reinforcement function into the wheel house outer panel itself by forming ridgeline sections through bulged sections. Instead of adding separate reinforcement components on both sides, the outer panel is designed with integrated ridgeline sections that provide structural reinforcement while eliminating the need for additional reinforcement parts, thus improving rigidity without increasing body weight.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs curved bulged sections to form ridgeline sections on the wheel house outer panel. These curved geometries create structural reinforcement through the natural strength of curved surfaces, which resist deformation more effectively than flat surfaces. The ridgeline sections extend in the vehicle width direction and provide reinforcement without requiring additional components, resolving the contradiction between rigidity improvement and weight increase.
2Strength
If reinforcement components are added to improve wheel house rigidity, then structural strength is enhanced, but the number of components increases
Solution Approach 1:
The reinforcement structure is merged with the wheel house outer panel by forming ridgeline sections directly on the panel through bulged sections. This integration eliminates the need for separate reinforcement components, reducing the total number of parts while maintaining enhanced structural strength. The ridgeline sections serve dual purposes as both aesthetic features and structural reinforcements.
Solution Approach 2:
The wheel house outer panel serves its own reinforcement needs through the integrated ridgeline sections formed by bulged sections. The panel's own structure provides the reinforcement function that would otherwise require separate components, eliminating the need for additional reinforcement parts and simplifying the overall component structure.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
While a wheel house inner 31 is provided with a second inner side rein 15 extending in a vertical direction, in a wheel house outer 32, a bulged section 33, which is formed to be bulged to a cabin outer side, includes a wheel arch-shaped section 35 formed in an arch shape to cover a rear wheel from above when seen in a vehicle side view. The wheel house outer 32 is formed with an upward extending ridgeline section 42 that extends upward above the wheel arch-shaped section 35 along a bulged shape of the bulged section 33 to the cabin outer side and at least a portion of which overlaps the second inner side rein 15 when seen in the vehicle side view.