The behavior of the liquid-like Langmuirʹs adsorbed film on air bearing surfaces

The contamination of slider air bearing surfaces may lead to a critical failure of hard disk drive systems. The contamination may be classified into two types: the liquid-like contamination and the particle contamination. In this study, the liquid-like contamination is concerned. It is assumed that the liquid-like contamination is caused by the adsorption of contaminant molecules in air. A mathematic model has been developed to predict the accumulating process of the liquid-like contaminant on air bearing surfaces. Numerical analysis of the behavior of the liquid-like adsorbed film for two different types of air bearing surfaces was conducted by using the proposed model based on the Langmuir adsorption. The results show that the contaminant tends to accumulate on the recession area of the air bearing surface when the viscosity of the liquid-like adsorbed film is low. However it may also accumulate in the front area of the air bearing surface when the viscosity is as high as 20 Pa s.