A Numerical Simulation Method to Evaluate the Static and Dynamic Characteristics of Flying Head Sliders on Patterned Disk Surfaces

To quantitatively predict the static and dynamic characteristics of a flying head slider on a patterned disk surface, the “mixed averaging method” has been successfully applied to the molecular gas lubrication problem incurred by groove-shaped textures formed over the lubricating surface. First, formulation of the alternative direction implicit method using a “mixed averaged” film thickness was derived and implemented as a numerical simulation system. To analyze several types of surface patterns including their mixture patterns, the mixing ratio for the pressure flow and the shear flow were tabulated and interpolated at every mesh point, and then the spacing variations of typical sliders on a discrete track recording medium were demonstrated.