Multicomponent gas mixture air bearing modeling via lattice Boltzmann method

Abstract

As the demand for ultrahigh recording density increases, development of an integrated head disk interface (HDI) modeling tool, which considers the air bearing and lubricant film morphology simultaneously is of paramount importance. To overcome the shortcomings of the existing models based on the modified Reynolds equation (MRE), the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is a natural choice in modeling high Knudsen number (Kn) flows owing to its advantages over conventional methods. The transient and parallel nature makes this LBM an attractive tool for the next generation air bearing design. Although LBM has been successfully applied to single component systems, a multicomponent system analysis has been thwarted because of the complexity in coupling the terms for each component. Previous studies have shown good results in modeling immiscible component mixtures by use of an interparticle potential. In this paper, we extend our LBM model to predict the flow rate of high Kn pressure-driven flows in multicomponent gas mixture air bearings, such as the air–helium system. For accurate modeling of slip conditions near the wall, we adopt our LBM scheme with spatially dependent relaxation times for air bearings in HDIs. To verify the accuracy of our code, we tested our scheme via simple two-dimensional benchmark flows. In the pressure-driven flow of an air–helium mixture, we found that the simple linear combination of pure helium and pure air flow rates, based on helium and air mole fraction, gives considerable error when compared to our LBM calculation. Hybridization with the existing MRE database can be adopted with the procedure reported here to develop the state-of-the-art slider design software.