Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Lubricant Transfer at the Head-Disk Interface

Molecular dynamics simulation is used to investigate lubricant transfer at the head-disk interface as a function of local pressure change, disk velocity, air bearing design, lubricant bonding ratio, head-disk spacing, and finite width of air bearing. A coarse-grained bead-spring model is used in conjunction with the Lennard-Jones potential, a short-range attractive polar potential, and a finitely extensible nonlinear elastic potential. The results show that lubricant transfer increases as a function of local pressure change, disk velocity, and air bearing width, but decreases with an increase in air bearing convergence angle, lubricant bonding ratio, and slider-disk spacing.