Decreasing Turbulent Helium Flow in Hard Disk Drive

A spoiler installed in a hard disk drive is helpful for reducing the flow which strikes the Head Gimbals Assembly (HGA) causing positioning errors and vibration. Filling a hard disk drive, with an installed spoiler, with helium gas was simulated by ANSYS Fluent software by using a realizable k – ε model to carry out the turbulence calculation of helium flow. The results show that the pressure fluctuation in a hard disk drive with a spoiler installed is lower than in a hard disk drive without, and accordingly the lower pressure fluctuation can reduce the force caused by pressure on the platter disks and reduce vibration in the hard disk drive.

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