Title: Wall shape effects on airflow characteristics in hard disk drive enclosures

Authors: S. Ali, M. Damodaran, Q.Y. Ng

Addresses: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore. ' School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore. ' Seagate Technology International, 63 The Fleming, Science Park Drive, Singapore Science Park, 118249, Singapore

Abstract: Insight into airflow characteristics in Hard Disk Drive (HDD) enclosures is important for understanding flow induced vibrations and particle trajectories that affect the integrity of the data being stored and read. In this paper, the effects of enclosure wall shapes on airflow characteristics are investigated as a starting point for optimal design of HDD enclosures. The impact of three wall shapes with varying disk-to-wall gap sizes and curvatures on the variations in airflow within the hard disk enclosures is considered in this study.

Keywords: aerodynamics; design engineering; hard disks; wall shapes; airflow characteristics; hard disk drive enclosures; HDD enclosures; CFD; computational fluid dynamics; flow induced vibrations; particle trajectories; optimal design.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2006.011323

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2006 Vol.6 No.8, pp.511 - 521

Published online: 17 Nov 2006 *

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