THE PAST AND PRESENT ROLES OF COMPUTER-AIDED ENGINEERING IN DASD DESIGN

At the heart of today's computer-aided engineering (CAE) revolution is finite element modeling (FEM), This paper presents a brief history of how FEM simulations interact with and have significant impact on the design process of storage devices, The discussion is limited to struct ural static and dynamic effects on head/disk assemblies (HDAs) and com ponents. FEM is integral to the design process; it is primarily a pred ictive/diagnostic design tool that provides engineers with detailed in formation on the performance of a design, FEM is most effective during the concept phase, where it can sort out many performance issues befo re the design parameters are constrained. Also, FEM can help to optimi ze critical structures within the system, As a diagnostic tool, FEM su pplements testing by predicting in advance the properties and behavior of the device, A three-piece suspension design is presented as an exa mple of how FEM and design work in harmony, An FEM of the entire struc ture was built to verify design and to fine-tune dimensions, Areas tha t required reinforcement and frequencies that seemed too low were iden tified, and the structure was modified, This process was repeated seve ral times until the design satisfied the requirements, In addition to the suspension design example, a thermal deformation problem with a 3. 5-in. actuator comb assembly is discussed.