SHOCK PULSE AMPLITUDE AND WIDTH EFFECTS ON THE SHOCK RESPONSE OF AN OPERATIONAL DISK DRIVE

The interest in the effects of shock on HDDs has come into currency due to the reduction of the flying height of the head/disk interface and the increasingly hostile environments encountered in the usage of many consumer electronics and portable devices. This paper discusses the shock pulse amplitude and width effects on the shock response of an operational disk drive. The drive is subjected to half sine acceleration shock pulse with varying amplitude and width. A finite element model of the hard disk drive is developed in the commercially available finite element package, ANSYS/LSDYNA. The air bearing between the disk and the slider is modeled by nonlinear springs. The contact between the disk and the slider is also considered. It is found that the shock response of the drive is sensitive to both the shock pulse amplitude and width.