SIMULATION OF ASPERITY CONTACTS AT THE HEAD DISK INTERFACE OF TRI-PADSLIDERS DURING STEADY-STATE FLYING/

A model for asperity contacts at the head/disk interface has been deve loped that allows for elastic asperity deformations based on an experi mentally derived function for the contact pressure. The model predicts the distributed contact pressure, the contact force and the apparent area of contact on the air bearing surface of the slider A second appr oach that assumes entirely rigid asperities is employed to verify the asymptotic behavior of the contact force as the asperity stiffness inc reases. Further results are reported for the elastic asperity method a nd the dependence of the contact force, contact area and flying height on various operating conditions is investigated. The comparison betwe en numerical calculations and experimental results shows excellent qua litative agreement.