AN EFFICIENT FINITE ELEMENT-BASED AIR-BEARING SIMULATOR FOR PIVOTED SLIDER BEARINGS USING BI-CONJUGATE GRADIENT ALGORITHMS

A computationally efficient air bearing simulator for pivoted slider b earings has been developed that is based on finite element theory and uses bi-conjugate gradient algorithms in conjunction with a sparse mat rix storage scheme. The air bearing simulator involves the simultaneou s solution of the Reynolds equation and the slider equilibrium equatio ns. The highly nonlinear problem requires the repeated solution of a n onsymmetric system of equations, typically with a large number of unkn owns depending on the complexity of the slider geometry. Iterative sol vers, such as the bi-conjugate gradient algorithms used for this study , require significantly less core memory as compared to direct solvers and reduce the solution time if combined with a suitable precondition er. Of the bi-conjugate gradient algorithm/preconditioner combinations implemented, the Bi-CGSTAB algorithm combined with an ILU preconditio ner provided the best performance in terms of smooth convergence and c omputational efficiency.