Dynamic Force Measurement of a Head Arm Assembly of a Hard Disk Drive by Numerical Analysis and Experiments

In this paper, dynamic forces of a head arm assembly (HAA) of a hard disk drive (HDD) against an impact load and in free oscillation after an impact load are obtained by means of finite element analysis (FEA) and by carrying out experiments using a modified levitation mass method (LMM). A good correlation between the experimental and numerical results is achieved. The effectiveness of both FE simulation and LMM method in measuring the minute dynamic forces involved in HDDs is evaluated.