Author(s)

T.H. Yip, M.A. Suriadi, S.C.M. Yu & E.H. Ong

Abstract

Read/write operations in computer hard disk drives (HDD) are supported by a rotary actuator. Air movements in the drive are a consequence of still air dragged along by the flat surfaces of the spinning circular disks. Air flowing in the enclosed HDD induces severe mechanical vibration of the actuator that causes Track Mis-registration error (TMR) and limits the achievable TPI, an indicator of the storage capacity of a computer hard disk drive. The velocity fields of an enclosed HDD model were measured with a Laser Doppler Anemometer non-intrusively. The model retained most of the common dimensions and basic features of a 3½ ” HDD. The disks were spun at 10,000 rpm. From the spatial derivatives of the Reynolds shear stresses spatially distributed in the HDD model, the aerodynamic force distribut

Keywords