Compressible Navier–Stokes Computations for Slider Air-Bearings

Abstract

Two-dimensional computations of the compressible Navier–Stokes equations are used to study the flow at the inlet and outlet of slider air-bearings operating under conditions typical of computer disk-storage devices. Inlet results show a pressure gain of several times the dynamic pressure of the incoming flow, with the actual value depending on the local Reynolds number. Although the outlet of the slider is characterized by a sudden pressure drop, the numerical results show that for sliders operating at small Mach numbers there is only a small temperature drop. The computations show the position of the separating streamline on the back surface of the slider, which is found to depend on the radius of curvature of the outlet corner. Results are also shown from calculations of the global flow underneath and around a two-dimensional slider.