Accelerated drop test simulation using relative coordinate solution and finite element method

Shock resistance of hard disk drives (HDDs) tends to be a critical issue with the rapid growth of portable consumer electronics such as notebooks, PDAs, and digital cameras. Finite element method (FEM) is widely used in simulating drop test. However, it is computationally expensive. An accelerated drop test method, which adopts relative coordinate and recursive solutions, is developed. The computational time is drastically reduced without suffering a significant loss in accuracy. By adopting this method, designers can evaluate the shock resistance of a HDD quickly so that they can have more time to optimize the shock performance of HDDs. Moreover, they can simulate the whole process, instead of simulating just a brief moment of head-disk collision.