A nonlinear dynamics theory for modeling slider air bearing in hard disk drives

A nonlinear dynamics theory is presented for modeling air bearing slider sy stems. The nonlinear dynamic coefficients are acquired by fitting the datab ase of the discrete linear dynamic coefficients. The linear dynamic coeffic ients for an air bearing slider around steady flying state are calculated b y using a Reynolds-equation-based perturbation method. A nonlinear analysis shows that the natural frequencies of the system decrease with the increas e of slider vibration amplitude, and that the softening feature of the syst em bends the resonance to lower frequency and complicates the system vibrat ions. The analysis correlates with experimental results. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021- 8979(00)84508-9].