Virtual Sensing in Local Active Suppression on Pressure Fluctuations for Controlling Flow-Induced Vibration in Hard Disk Drives

Numerical simulations are presented on a feedback active control strategy for flow-induced off-track vibration of the head gimbals assembly (HGA) supporting the slider in hard disk drives, through suppressing pressure fluctuations around the HGA. A virtual sensing method is employed to enable the feedback signal changeable from pressure fluctuations at the physical sensor position to those at single “virtual sensor” positions closely around the HGA or a spatial average of pressure fluctuations along an HGA surface. Based on a linear control methodology, performance of the proposed active control strategy with different feedback signals has been investigated in two-dimensional simulations, where a physical pressure sensor and a pressure actuator are assumed on the inner-surface of the HDD cover to detect the pressure fluctuations and to actuate active pressure oscillations into HDD space respectively. The results show effective control on the HGA off-track vibration when the feedback signal is configured to minimize pressure fluctuations at specific positions closely around the HGA, such as the wake region. It is also shown that satisfying control effect can be achieved on the HGA off-track vibration in the global spectrum when the feedback signal is configured to minimize the spatial average of pressure fluctuations along the upper surface of the HGA.