2310 Stability analysis of ultra-thin liquid film surface under air bearing slider : Influence of slider dynamics on air film instability

Abstract

In the head-disk interface (HDI) of a hard disk drive (HDD), lubricant deformation may cause the degradation of flying characteristics of head slider, as the flying height is decreasing. Dai et al. analyzed washboard effect as the stability/instability problem of the lubricant surface from the view point of shear stress effects caused by slider vibration. In this paper we analyzed the similar problem considering i) the van der Waals attractive pressure on the lubricant surface from the slider, ii) the air film stiffness and damping dependent on excitation frequency and iii) the shear stress coefficient. In the natural frequency of the air film, the lubricant deformation may grow by the shear stress effect at the lubricant surface.