Effects of Inserting Arm Blockage on Heat Transfer in a Corotating Disk Assembly

To advance disk drive design for increased performance and reliability, a thorough understanding of flow and thermal transport in the disk file is essential. The primary objective of this study is to examine the effects of slider arm blockage on the convective characteristics in a 3.5-inch corotating disk stack. Using an analogous mass transfer system based on naphthalene sublimation, the detailed distribution of local mass transfer coefficient over the disk surface is determined by an automated micropositioning system. By analogy, the mass transfer coefficient can be transformed to the corresponding heat transfer coefficient and friction coefficient. All the transport coefficients reveal strong variation with the arm blockage in the radial direction. However, overall average transfer coefficient obtained by integrating their corresponding local values are rather insensitive to the extent of arm protrusion.