**Foreword/disclaimer**: This is my derivation (as I mentioned I've never seen this procedure written ), so I would appreciate any constructive feedback. ---- I am assuming that the viscous "damping" coefficient for this system produces a torque which is proportional to the angular velocity. $$M(\omega(t) ) = c_t \omega(t) \tag{eq.1}$$ (this is an analogy to the viscous damping $F=c\cdot \dot{x}$.) At any given point the rotational motion of the wheel is given by: $$\sum M = I\cdot \alpha \tag{eq.2}$$ where: - $\sum M = - M_t$ is the sum to torsional moments on the wheel (I am using the minus because the torque decelerates the wheel). - $I$ is mass moment of inertia of the wheel - $\alpha = \frac{d\omega}{dt}$ is the angular acceleration of the wheel. From eq.1, eq.2 we obtain that: $$-c_t \omega(t) = I\cdot \frac{d\omega}{dt} $$ $$c_t dt = -I\cdot \frac{d\omega}{\omega(t) } $$ by integrating both parts we obtain: $$\int_{t_0}^{t_1} c_t dt = -\int_{\omega_0}^{\omega_1} I\cdot \frac{d\omega}{\omega(t) } $$ $$c_t (t_1 -t_0) = -I\left[\ln \omega\right]_{\omega_0}^{\omega_1} $$ $$c_t (t_1 -t_0) = -I\ln \left(\frac{\omega_1}{\omega_0}\right)$$ Now, provided you know the mass moment of area A, you can make an estimation of the $c_t$. ---- ## numerical example | revs | elapsed time | lap period | $ω$ | $-\ln\frac{ω_ι}{ω_0}$ | $c_t$ | |:-----:|:-----:|:-----:|:-----:|:-----:|:-----:| | 1 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 10.47| 0 | NA | | 2 | 1.31 | 0.71 | 4.79 | 0.780 | 0.39 | | 3 | 2.19 | 0.88 | 2.87 | 1.294 | 0.43 |