Numerical Simulations of the Head-Disk Interface in Hard Disk Drives : 9783639132144 : 12 Mar 2009 : This monograph is based on the Doctoral thesis of theauthor at the University of California, Berkeley(2008). Over the past few years, hard disk drives(HDD) have become viable for many consumer productsthat require large storage capacities. Theseapplications subject the HDD to adverse conditionswherein the reliability and performance of the drivebecomes critical. This book presents a Finite Elementbased simulation methodology which is used to studydynamic events such as load/unload and shock of the HDD.The dynamics of the HDI are governed by thestructural components of the HDD as well as theair-bearing which is formed between the spinning diskand the flying head. A new numerical scheme ispresented to solve the resulting nonlinear coupledset of equations using stabilized finite elements,first for the steady state case and then for the timedependent case. Meshing/refinement strategies aree