The Effect of Disk Warpage/Skew on the Deflection and Vibration of a Flexible Disk Spinning Above a Baseplate and in Contact With a Point-Head

A flexible disk, with small initial warpage/skew, is spinning in close proximity to a stationary baseplate. The partial differential equation for the disk deflection is coupled to the Reynolds equation of the stabilizing air-film. Disk warpage/skew produces a small change in the deflection which rotates with the disk. These deflections are obtained by linearizing the coupled equations about the axisymmetric configuration corresponding to a perfect disk. Numerical solutions are obtained and compared for different values of rotational speed and air-film thickness. The results show that among the three skewed/warped disks modeled, the skewed disk (i.e., the plane of the disk is skewed with respect to its axis of rotation) produces the largest deflection change (axial runout). With the effect of a point-contact head included, the existence of disk warpage/skew causes the head to produce a spatially-fixed harmonically varying force. The total disk motion is determined by superposition of the deflection pattern fixed on the disk and the space-fixed head-induced vibration. The disk pitch angle variation at the head is obtained and the results are compared for various values of the rotational speed and air-film thickness.