The effect of track-seeking on off-track residual vibrations of the head-gimbal assembly (HGA) is investigated for air and helium environments using the so-called “fluid dynamic mesh” method and the “fluid-structure interaction” method. Three different angular acceleration profiles (square wave, triangular wave and sinusoidal wave) are investigated as a function of seek time (10 ms and 5 ms). Results show that smoothening of sharp transitions of the seek profile improves the performance of off-track residual vibrations during track-following and shortens the track-following time of the head positioning servo system. In addition, the effect of lateral flow (windage) on off-track residual vibrations during track-following must be considered for a square wave angular acceleration profile. Simulation results show that helium improves the track-following accuracy compared to air due to the lower windage forces acting on the HGA. We observe that the sinusoidal wave angular acceleration performs best among the three angular acceleration profiles investigated. Furthermore, seek time is found to have only a small effect on off-track residual vibrations during track-following.

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