Vibro-acoustic interaction of components in hard disk drive under seek process

Abstract

With the increasing use of electro-mechanical systems such as hard disk drives, CD-Rom drives, and DVD drives in the consumer electronics industry, there is a growing demand for quieter products. The noise emitted from these devices may originate from the vibration of mechanical components in operation, such as bearings, gears and actuators. The vibration is then transmitted to other parts of the devices, such as the cover, and the noise emitted may then be amplified. This paper aims to develop a method for identify the acoustic noise emitted from hard disk drive seek process. In order to determine effective noise and vibration control of seek noise during the seek process, we first investigate the dynamic characteristic of the head actuator assembly under the different electrical drive signal using finite element method. In this paper, a bearing stiffness matrix (6 × 6) is adopted and performed using ANSYS element (Matrix 27). Using this method, we can understand the vibro-acoustic characteristics of hard disk drives and their components, and the mechanisms of vibration and sound transmission. Experiments are being conducted to demonstrate its validity through experiments. The method will also enable design optimisation for noise to be carried out at the design stage, before a new product is built, or help guide design changes on an existing device.