Design, simulation, and optimization of air bearing sliders flying at ultra-low spacing

Numerical simulation and optimization were performed to analyze the phenomena and solve the problems of the head/disk interface when sliders fly at ultra low spacing.; A numerical solution of the Reynolds equation was obtained based on finite element analysis. A sensitivity analysis of manufacturing tolerance and operating parameters was performed using the Monte Carlo analysis. Based on the Lennard-Jones potential model, the effect of intermolecular forces was studied by incorporating the van der Waals forces into the equations of motion of the slider. A new hybrid optimization approach, the combined genetic algorithm and subregion approach (CGS) method, was developed and presented to optimize the slider contours. In addition, the effect of surface texturing on the slider flying characteristics was numerically investigated in terms of texture design, texture density and texturing position.