Case Study: Hutchinson Technology achieves reduced disk-drive vibration and higher areal density with ANSYS Fluent and ANSYS Mechanical

Simulation Identifi es Disk Drive Design Modifi cations that Improve Performance

Hutchinson Technology, a global maker of disk drive suspension assemblies, faced airflow-induced vibrations that degraded the precision of head suspension positioning in high-speed, high–areal-density drives. To investigate and mitigate these issues, Hutchinson used ANSYS tools—specifically ANSYS Fluent and ANSYS Mechanical—to study the fluid–structure interactions that cause slider off-track motion.

ANSYS benchmarked Fluent against experimental data and ran FSI simulations of a 3.5" drive at 10,000 rpm, identifying vortex shedding as a major vibration source; redesigning affected components to avoid vortex shedding reduced vibration and improved head positioning, enabling smaller track spacing and higher area density. Use of ANSYS simulation also reduced prototype testing time by several weeks and saved Hutchinson several tens of thousands of dollars.

Hutchinson Technology

Mohammad R. Kazemi

Principal Engineer