Numerical Investigation of Bouncing Vibrations of an Air Bearing Slider in Near or Partial Contact

Near or partial contact sliders are designed for the areal recording density of $1Tbit/in.2$ or even higher in hard disk drives. The bouncing vibration of an air bearing-slider in near or partial contact with the disk is numerically analyzed using three different nonlinear slider dynamics models. In these three models, the air bearing with contact is modeled either by using the generalized Reynolds equation modified with the Fukui–Kaneko slip correction and a recent second order slip correction for the contact situation, or using nonlinear springs to represent the air bearing. The contact and adhesion between the slider and the disk are considered either through an elastic contact model and an improved intermolecular adhesion model, respectively, or using an Ono–Yamane multi-asperity contact and adhesion model (2007, “Improved Analysis of Unstable Bouncing Vibration and Stabilizing Design of Flying Head Slider in Near-Contact Region,” ASME J. Tribol., 129, pp. 65–74.). The contact friction is calculated by using Coulomb’s law and the contact force. The simulation results from all of these models show that the slider’s bouncing vibration occurs as a forced vibration caused by the moving microwaviness and roughness on the disk surface. The disk surface microwaviness and roughness, which move into the head disk interface as the disk rotates, excite the bouncing vibration of the partial contact slider. The contact, adhesion, and friction between the slider and the disk do not directly cause a bouncing vibration in the absence of disk microwaviness or roughness.