Vibration Response Characteristics against the Radial and Axial Shocks on Small Size Hard Disk Drive Spindle Supported by Oil Film Bearings

This paper describes the experimental study on shock response of FDB （fluid dynamic bearing） spindle for HDDs （hard disk drives）. The FDBs are widely used as rotating shaft support elements for HDD spindle motors. Recently, the opportunity for the HDD spindle motors exposed to external vibration has been increasing because the HDDs are used for various information related equipment such as mobile PCs （personal computers）, video cameras, car navigation systems and so on. Hence, the rotating shaft has a possibility to come in contact with the bearing by external shocks and it causes wear or seizure to the bearing surface. To avoid the problem, it is extremely important to know how the spindle moves against the large shock on HDDs experimentally. However, as far as the authors know, there are few experimental studies treating the shock response of HDD spindles. In this paper, firstly, we propose a new test rig and experimental method for shock response of FDB spindles. Then the shock tests against the radial and axial disturbance on FDB spindle for 2.5＂ HDD are conducted. Finally, the experimental results of shock response waveforms and maximum displacement of disk are shown.     

Study of Flow Characteristics of Lubricant in Spiral-Groove Bearings by the Fluorescent Method

Abstract

The hard disk drive spindle is one of the critical mechanical components in hard disk drives (HDDs). It has great influence on overall performance, including track density, data-transfer rate, energy consumption, noise, and so forth. Nowadays, HDDs with higher density and speed, larger capacity, and smaller size are under active development. This requires that HDD spindles have fast rotating speed, excellent accuracy, and small size. However, ball-bearing spindles, which are widely used in current HDDs, cannot meet these requirements. HDD spindles supported by oil-lubricated spiral-groove bearings are considered to be a candidate to replace ball-bearing spindles. There is no oil-supply device in the bearing, and the flow characteristics of the lubricant in the bearing have a great effect on the performance of the spindle.

In this article, the fluorescent method is used to study the flow characteristics of the lubricant in a spiral-groove bearing. The establishment and recovery of the lubricant film during start/stop of the spindle are observed. The effects of working conditions on the thickness and distribution of the lubricant film are investigated. The influence of oil supply on the performance of the bearing is also studied.     

磁悬浮硬盘驱动器及其静电防护设计

磁悬浮硬盘可以提高硬盘的转速，减少寻道时间，提高存取速度。但完全悬浮在空中的硬盘会因与空气的高速摩擦而产生静电，危害硬盘信息存储的安全性。这里针对研究开发磁悬浮硬盘技术中的静电干扰问题，提出了安全可靠的解决办法。     

Abrasive jet machining for the microprofile control patterning of herringbone grooves

Fluid bearings have features of high speed and high rotation accuracy, and therefore, they are used in spindle motors of hard disk drives, cooling fans of central processing units, and other devices. Further, these bearings have microherringbone grooves on the shaft or sleeve inner surface that help generate dynamic pressure in the lubricant fluid around the shaft. Although the depth of the groove is constant, dynamic pressure can be increased by decreasing the depth from both ends to the central corner of each groove on a micron scale. This study aims to verify the effect of sloped herringbone grooves using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis and to develop a new microfabrication method for manufacturing microsloped herringbone grooves on the shaft surface using abrasive jet machining. The generated dynamic pressure is analyzed using CFD; the results indicated that the sloped herringbone grooves result in an increase in the dynamic pressure at the groove tips and cause a decrease in the fluctuations in dynamic pressure in the circumferential direction.     

Air Bearing Spindle Motor for Hard Disk Drives

This article discusses the possibility of using air-bearing spindle motors to replace hydrodynamic-bearing spindle motors used in hard disk drives through comparing the advantages and disadvantages of air-bearing spindle motors with those of hydrodynamic-bearing spindle motors. Then the dynamic characteristics of the air-bearing system are analyzed and optimum parameters are proposed. The prototypes based on the obtained parameters are fabricated and tested. The test result is presented and compared with the numerical prediction; good agreement is observed.     

Hardening Effect on Machined Surface for Precise Hard Cutting Process with Consideration of Tool Wear

During hard cutting process there is severe thermodynamic coupling effect between cutting tool and workpiece, which causes quenching effect on finished surfaces under certain conditions. However, material phase transformation mechanism of heat treatment in cutting process is different from the one in traditional process, which leads to changes of the formation mechanism of damaged layer on machined workpiece surface. This paper researches on the generation mechanism of damaged layer on machined surface in the process of PCBN tool hard cutting hardened steel Cr12MoV. Rules of temperature change on machined surface and subsurface are got by means of finite element simulation. In phase transformation temperature experiments rapid transformation instrument is employed, and the effect of quenching under cutting conditions on generation of damaged layer is revealed. Based on that, the phase transformation points of temperature under cutting conditions are determined. By experiment, the effects of cutting speed and tool wear on white layer thickness in damaged layer are revealed. The temperature distribution law of third deformation zone is got by establishing the numerical prediction model, and thickness of white layer in damaged layer is predicted, taking the tool wear effect into consideration. The experimental results show that the model prediction is accurate, and the establishment of prediction model provides a reference for wise selection of parameters in precise hard cutting process. For the machining process with high demanding on surface integrity, the generation of damaged layer on machined surface can be controlled precisely by using the prediction model.     

Numerical Study of the Mixing of Density-Stratified Fluid with a Jet

Density stratification of LNG （liquefied natural gas） is produced in a storage tank when one LNG is loaded on top of another LNG in the same tank. Mixing LNG by a jet issued from a nozzle on the tank wall is considered to a promising technique to prevent and eliminate stratification in LNG storage tanks. This study is concerned with the numerical simulation of a jet flow issued into a two-layer density-stratified fluid in a tank and the resultant mixing phenomena. The jet behavior was investigated with the laboratory-based experiment of the authors＇ previous study. A numerical method proposed by the authors is employed for the simulation. The upper and lower fluids are water and a NaCl-water solution, respectively, and the lower fluid is issued vertically upward from a nozzle on the bottom of the tank. The Reynolds number （Re） defined by the jet velocity and the nozzle diameter ranges from 95 to 2,378, and the mass concentration of the NaCl-water solution Co is set at 0.02 and 0.04. The simulation highlights the jet-induced mixing between the upper and lower fluids. It also clarifies the effects of Re and C0 on the height and horizontal spread of the jet.     

Proof of Concept MFD Optimization of the Aftbody Geometry of Axisymmetric Slender Body Based on Wave Drag Considerations

A comprehensive, universally valid, elegant and yet simple method to design slender axisymmetric body of minimum wave drag in transonic and supersonic flows is developed. Computational aerodynamics is also used as a tool for numerical experiments in gaining physical understanding of the drag mechanism due to the geometry of the aftbody, such as the correlation between wave drag and wave distribution of the aftbody geometry. The method utilizes MFD （modified feasible direction） based optimization program, along with the linear slender body aerodynamics, for its elegance and generic optimization convenience. The efforts are focused on inviscid flow. A practical method of reducing the wave drag of a given body is developed for both bodies with pointed end and with base area, using shock wave generator at a particular location on the aftbody. The results show that the MFD optimization program can be effectively utilized in an aerodynamic optimization problem.     

Dynamic behavior of fluid‐structure coupling of hydrostatic spindle under effect of oil film slip

To better understand the dynamic characteristics of a hydrostatic spindle in fluid‐structure coupling, the impact of oil film slip on the 4 dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients of the spindle is studied. On the basis of modified Reynolds equation, which considers the microscale velocity slip effect, rotation error of the spindle is calculated. To solve the rotor axis orbit under the existence of eccentric quality, 4 dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients of the oil film, which describe the dynamics of a rotor axis orbit, are calculated by using load increment method and the pressure perturbation method. The research results show that velocity slip caused a certain impact on dynamics of bearing stiffness and damping performance. The experiment of the measuring path of the shaft verifies the correct and effect of the orbit of shaft center model.     

Vortex Dissipation Due to Airfoil-Vortex Interaction

The influences due to several AVIs （airfoil-vortex interactions） are studied by using a two-dimensional CFD （computational fluid dynamics） method. The primary goal of this effort is to assess the variation of vortex center location and vortex circulation associated with sequential AVI toward an improvement of the hybrid method of CFD and prescribed wake model, which closely relates to predicting the BVI （blade-vortex interaction） noise radiated from a helicopter rotor. The representative of sequential AVI is performed by single vortex and two airfoils. Investigations with respect to vortex center location and vortex circulation after AVIs have been made by varying the miss-distance, which is the vertical distance between the airfoil leading edge and the vortex center. Correlations between miss-distance and vorticity field show that there exists complicated vortex wake flow with several vortices newly induced in 1st AVI. The pressure fluctuation amplitude clarifies that the intensity in 2nd AV1 is significantly low compared to the intensity in 1st AVI due to the influence of vortex dissipation. Simulations turned out to modify the vortex center location represented by the hybrid method using an offset value for a streamwise direction and to dissipate the vortex circulation for improving the accuracy of BVI noise prediction.     

Stability Analysis of Floating Ball Bearing

Conventional disk drive motors supported on ball bearings (BBs) cause nonrepeatable runout (NRRO) due to the surface imperfections on balls and raceways. NRRO is a source of track misregistration between head and disk that inhibits high track density in a hard disk drive. Fluid dynamic bearings with herringbone grooves either on the rotating or stationary surfaces are a suitable replacement for conventional ball bearings. Herringbone grooved bearings have considerably lower noise level than ball bearings and have better stability compared to plain journal bearings at concentric operating position. However, herringbone-grooved patterns are difficult to manufacture because groove depth is of the order of bearing clearance. The major limitation of the BBs is the direct contact between the rotating and stationary parts and also lack of damping effects. This present work attempts to overcome these drawbacks in BBs by eliminating the metal-to-metal contact using a layer of fluid film, and a theoretical analysis of stability characteristics of a floating BB is presented. Results indicate that there is an improvement in the stability of floating BB rotor systems with increase in outer to inner film clearance ratio (β) from 0.7 to 1.3, and with decrease in ratio of outer race radius to inner race radius (δ) from 3.0 to 1.2.     

FE Study for Reducing Forming Forces and Flat End Areas of Cylindrical Shapes Obtained by the Roll-Bending Process

A roll-bending process that minimizes the flat areas on the leading and trailing ends of formed plates will produce more accurate and easier assemble final shapes. There are several methods of minimizing flat areas, but they are costly or difficult to apply for thick plates. This study proposes a new, simple approach that reduces these flat areas. This approach includes moving the bottom roll slightly along the feeding direction and adjusting the bottom roll location. Sensitivity analyses were performed using a developed 3D dynamic FE （finite element） model of an asymmetrical roll-bending process in the Ansys/LS-Dyna software package. Simulations were validated by experiments run on an instrumented roll-bending machine. The FE results indicate that this new approach not only minimizes the flat areas but also reduces the forming forces.     

Design of a Preview Controller for Articulated Heavy Vehicles

The paper presents a preview controller design for ATS （active trailer steering） systems to improve high-speed stability of AHVs （articulated heavy vehicles）. An AHV consists of a towing unit, namely tractor or truck, and one or more towed units which called trailers. Individual units are connected to one another at articulated joints by mechanical couplings. Due to the multi-unit configurations, AHVs exhibit unique unstable motion modes, including jack-knifing, trailer swing and rollover. These unstable motion modes are the leading cause of highway accidents. To prevent these unstable motion modes, the preview controller, namely the LPDP （lateral position deviation preview） controller, is proposed. For a truck/full-trailer combination, the LPDP controller is designed to control the steering of the front and rear axle wheels of the trailing unit. The calculation of the corrective steering angle of the trailer front axle wheels is based on the preview information of the lateral position deviation of the trajectory of the axle center from that of the truck front axle center. Similarly, the steering angle of the trailer rear axle wheels is calculated by using the lateral position deviation of the trajectory of the axle center from that of the truck front axle. To perform closed-loop dynamic simulations and evaluate the vehicle performance measure, a driver model is introduced and it ＇derives＇ the AHV model based on well-defined testing specifications. The proposed preview control scheme in the continuous time domain is developed by using the LQR （linear quadratic regular） technique. The closed-loop simulation results indicate that the performance of the AHV with the LPDP controller is improved by decreasing rearward amplification ratio from the baseline value of 1.28 to 0.98 and reducing transient off-tracking by 95.03%. The proposed LPDP control algorithm provides an alternative method for the design optimization of AHVs with ATS systems.     

液体静压主轴油膜滑移现象的分析及试验研究

针对液体静压主轴运动过程中动态特性问题,研究微尺度下油膜滑移对轴承承载力,刚度及动态刚度的影响。把微尺度下发生的速度滑移引入到油膜性能方程中,结合液体静压主轴系统平衡方程推导出了主轴系统承载力、刚度及动态刚度表达式,研究了油膜初期主轴静动态性能及油膜动刚度特性。从仿真结果中得到油膜滑移的发生使得承载力及刚度增大,最大刚度对应油膜厚度减小。最后刚度检测试验间接得出了实际主轴系统油膜流动过程中,存在油膜微滑移现象。本项研究为液体静压主轴微尺度下油膜滑移现象及性能的研究探索了一条新途径。     

Fully Integrated Machine Control for Ultra Precision Machining

To meet the demands for highly advanced components with ultra precise contour accuracy and optical surface quality arising in the fields of photonics and optics, automotive, medical applications and biotechnology, consumer electronics and renewable energy, more advanced production machines and processes have to be developed. As the complexity of machine tools rises steadily, the automation of manufacture increases rapidly, processes become more integrated and cycle times have to be reduced significantly, challenges of engineering efficient machine tools with respect to these demands expand every day. Especially the manufacture of freeform geometries with non-continuous and asymmetric surfaces requires advanced diamond machining strategies involving highly dynamic axes movements with a high bandwidth and position accuracy. Ultra precision lathes additionally equipped with Slow Tool and Fast Tool systems can be regarded as state-of-the-art machines achieving the objectives of high quality optical components. The mechanical design of such ultra precision machine tools as well as the mechanical integration of additional highly dynamic axes are very well understood today. In contrast to that, neither advanced control strategies for ultra precision machining nor the control integration of additional Fast Tool systems have been sufficiently developed yet. Considering a complex machine setup as a mechatronic system, it becomes obvious that enhancements to further increase the achievable form accuracy and surface quality and at the same time decrease cycle times and error sensitivity can only be accomplished by innovative, integrated control systems. At the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT a novel, fully integrated control approach has been developed to overcome the drawbacks of state-of-the-art machine controls for ultra precision processes. Current control systems are often realized as decentralized solutions consisting of various computational hardware components for setpoint generation, machine control, HMI （human machine interface）, Slow Tool control and Fast Tool control. While implementing such a distributed control strategy, many disadvantages arise in terms of complex communication interfaces, discontinuous safety structures, synchronization of cycle times and the machining accuracy as a whole. The novel control approach has been developed as a fully integrated machine control including standard CNC （computer numerical control） and PLC （programmable logic controller） functionality, advanced setpoint generation methods, an extended HMI as well as an FPGA （field programmable gate array）-based controller for a voice coil driven Slow Tool and a piezo driven Fast Tool axis. As the new control system has been implemented as a fully integrated platform using digital communication via EtherCAT, a continuous safety strategy could be realized, the error sensitivity and EMC susceptibility could be significantly decreased and the overall process accuracy from setpoint generation over path interpolation to axes movements could be enhanced. The novel control at the same time offers additional possibilities of automation, process integration, online data acquisition and evaluation as well as error compensation methods.     

Redundant Hydraulic Secondary Flight Control Systems Behavior in Failure Conditions

The flight control systems, designed in order to assure the necessary safety level even in failure conditions, are generally characterized by a proper redundant layout. The redundancies must be designed in order to assure an adequate system behavior when some failures are present; in fact an incorrect layout may cause serious shortcomings concerning the response when some component is not operational. Therefore the usual correct design activities request the complete analysis of the system behavior in failure condition. The work analyses the response of a redundant secondary flight control hydraulic servo-mechanism equipped with some proper equalization devices, when some of the most probable and representative failures are present. It must be noted that the redundancy layout, designed in order to assure the necessary safety level even in failure conditions, may behave improperly during normal operations, if the system architecture is unsuitable, when manufacturing defects are present. The improper behavior, generally consisting of force fighting or speed fighting caused by different offsets or asymmetries between the two sections of the system, may be usually overcome by means of a suitable equalization device. Therefore, the system behavior during and following the failure transient greatly depends on both its redundancy architecture and related equalization device. The above mentioned problems have been studied by means of an appropriate physical-mathematical model of a typical electro-hydraulic servo-mechanism prepared to the purpose, performing a certain number of simulations of representative actuations in which different types of failures are accurately modeled. In the opinion of the authors, this paper concerns a topic quite neglected but important in the technical literature. At the best of the authors＇ knowledge, no specific scientific work in this field is available, excepting some industrial technical reports.     

Unsteady flow simulations in a three-lobe positive displacement blower

To improve the performance of the positive displacement blower, it is imperative to understand the detailed internal flow characteristics or enable a visualization of flow status. However, the existing two-dimensional unsteady, three-dimensional steady or quasi-unsteady numerical simulation and theoretical analysis cannot provide the detailed flow information, which is unfavorable to improve the performance of positive displacement blower. Therefore, the unsteady flow characteristics in a three-lobe positive displacement blower are numerically investigated by solving the three-dimensional, unsteady, compressible Navier-Stokes equations coupled with RNG k-e turbulent model. In the numerical simulation, the dynamic mesh technique and overset mesh updating method are adopted. Due to the air being compressed in the process of the rotors rotating, the variation of the temperature field in the positive displacement blower is considered. By comparing the experimental measurements and the numerical results on the variation of flow rate with the outlet pressure, the maximum relative error of the flow rate is less than 2.15% even at the maximum outlet pressure condition, which means that the calculation model and numerical computational method used are effective. The numerical results show that in the intake region, the fluctuations of the inlet flow are greatly affected by the direction of the velocity vectors. In the exhaust region, the temperature changes significantly, which leads to the increase of the airflow pulsation. Through analysis on the velocity, pressure and temperature fields obtained from the numerical simulations, three-dimensional unsteady flow characteristics in the positive displacement blower are revealed. The studied results will provide useful reference for improving the performance and empirical correction in the design of the positive displacement blower.     

Identification of Suspension Bridge Parameters under Exploitational Conditions

The paper concerns a research into dynamic properties of the steel suspension bridge across Opolska Street in Krakow, Poland. Parameter identification was carried out with the application of the nonlinear system identification method on the basis of system responses to exploitational excitation resulting from pedestrian traffic. In order to verify obtained results, on the basis of the geometrical and material properties of the considered system, the FEM （finite elements model） was created. Created FEM model was updated through the comparison with the model determined by the use of experimental modal analysis method and then applied to analytical evaluation of the considered suspension bridge natural frequencies.     

An Algorithm for Parameter Identification of UAS from Flight Data

The aim of the present work is to realize an identification algorithm especially devoted to UAS （unmanned aerial systems）. Because UAS employ low cost sensor, very high measurement noise has to be taken into account. Therefore, due to both modelling errors and atmospheric turbulence, noticeable system noise has also to be considered. To cope with both the measurement and system noise, the identification problem addressed in this work is solved by using the FEM （filter error method） approach. A nonlinear mathematical model of the subject aircraft longitudinal dynamics has been tuned up through semi-empirical methods, numerical simulations and ground tests. To take into account model nonlinearities, an EKF （extended Kalman filter） has been implemented to propagate the state. A procedure has been tuned up to determine either aircraft parameters or the process noise. It is noticeable that, because the system noise is treated as unknown parameter, it is possible to identify system affected by noticeable modelling errors. Therefore, the obtained values of process noise covariance matrix can be used to highlight system failure. The obtained results show that the algorithm requires a short computation time to determine aircraft parameter with noticeable precision by using low computation power. The present procedure could be employed to determine the system noise for various mechanical systems, since it is particularly devoted to systems which present dynamics that are difficult to model. Finally, the tuned up off-line EKF should be employed to on-line estimation of either state or unmeasurable inputs like atmospheric turbulence.     

Effect of relative humidity and disk acceleration on tribocharge build-up at a slider–disk interface

High performance disk drives require high spindle speed. The spindle speed of typical hard disk drives has increased in recent years from 5400 to 15000 rpm and even higher speeds are anticipated in the near future. The increasing disk velocity leads to increasing disk acceleration and slider–disk interaction. As the head-to-disk spacing continues to decrease to facilitate increasing recording densities in disk drives, the slider–disk interaction has become much more severe due to the direct contact of head and disk surfaces in both start/stop and flying cases. The slider–disk interaction in contact-start-stop (CSS) mode is an important source of particle generation and tribocharge. Charge build-up in the slider–disk interface can cause electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage and lubricant decomposition. In turn, ESD can cause severe melting damage to MR or GMR heads. We measured the tribocurrent/voltage build-up generated at increasing disk acceleration. In addition, we examined the effects of relative humidity on the tribocharge build-up. We found that the tribocurrent/voltage was generated during pico-slider/disk interaction and that its level was below 250 pA and 0.5 V, respectively. Tribocurrent/voltage build-up was reduced with increasing disk acceleration. Higher humidity conditions (75–80%) yielded lower levels of tribovoltage/current. Therefore, a higher tribocharge is expected at a lower disk acceleration and lower relative humidity condition.