Numerical simulation of the slider air bearing problem of hard disk drivesby two multidimensional upwind residual distribution schemes over unstructured triangular meshes

In this paper we present two multigrid numerical schemes over unstructured triangular meshes that solve the slider air bearing problem of hard disk dr ives. For each fixed slider attitude. the air bearing pressure is obtained by solving the generalized Reynolds equation. The convection part of the eq uation is modeled in one scheme by the PSI multidimensional upwind residual distribution approach and in the other scheme by the SUPG finite element a pproach cast in residual distribution form. In both schemes, a linear Galer kin method is used to discretize the diffusion terms. In addition, a non-ne sted multigrid iteration technique is used to speed up the convergence rate . Finally, the balanced steady state flying attitude of the slider subject to pre-applied suspension force and torques is obtained by a Quasi-Newton i teration method (Broyden's method), and the results of the numerical soluti ons are compared to each other and to experimental data. (C) 2001 Academic Press.