Vibration characteristics of disks-spindle system in hard disk drives

The purpose of this paper is to develop both numerical and experimental methods that can be used for easy prediction of vibration characteristics of disk-spindle systems in hard disk drives (HDDs). First, the effective numerical method, i.e., Finite element method (FEM), for the modeling of the whole disks and spindle system under real product constraint conditions has been discussed. So the dynamics properties of the disk-spindle system during the system design can be are analyzed conveniently. Finally, these analytical predictions by FEM are verified through the proposed modal testing setup. The dynamic characteristics of the whole assembly have been measured through externally induced excitations. Results obtained using numerical and experimental methods agree very well. As demonstrated, the numerical methodology, i.e., FEM can provide much detailed information on the design of the disk-spindle system before it is built and tested to confirm the system design.