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Re:Donut Lab's next-generation in-wheel motors by esperent on Saturday January 11, 2025 @06:29AM (#42665159)
> Every Watt of energy that doesn't become torque at a rotational velocity is just heat.

Do you have any rough numbers to put on this? If there was 1000w of electrical power going to a wheel like this, what kind of heat loss are we talking? 5%, 10%, 30%?

Re:Donut Lab's next-generation in-wheel motors by vlachen on Saturday January 11, 2025 @04:02PM (#42668905)
Depends on the seal manufacturer. Those numbers are usually provided through their engineering data system. Their data will be fit to a particular tolerance for seal race surface finish, which will be influenced by the reality of manufacturing.
Re:Donut Lab's next-generation in-wheel motors by esperent on Sunday January 12, 2025 @05:00AM (#42672451)
Right, but are we talking closer to 5% or 50%?
Re:Donut Lab's next-generation in-wheel motors by vlachen on Sunday January 12, 2025 @10:49AM (#42674374)
Allow me to embrace my engineer nature and hedge my bets. A contact seal of that size is usually specced for a power transmitting shaft. An (assumed) 20" shaft is going to transmit a huge amount of power. So much that the seal losses will be negligible. Those same losses would exist on any shaft/seal combo of that size, but would take a greater fraction of total motor power, given the size and power constraints given by an internal motor design.