Ali T
pfm Member
The "confusion" here is that effective mass is really nothing directly to do with mass, at all. It is moment of inertia - the higher the number, the higher the inertia, so the arm is more resistant to movement. Adding the damping trough is EXACTLY the same as increasing effective mass (moment of inertia) - it increases the arms resistance to movement.
There will undoubtedly be maths available to convert the effect of the paddle in oil to an inertia/effective mass value, but you'd need numbers for viscous drag on the different paddles in whatever viscosity oil(s) is/are used.
Be wary of adding extra weight to the counter-balance - that REDUCES effective mass.
Given that there is unlikely to be any conversion figures available for the change in effective mass achieved by the paddles, the whole thing is bit "suck it and see".
Yes that makes sense, it's a flexible arm using the paddles, I've tried all sorts from Acutex to 103r to Benz.