Failure of Brittle and Ductile Hard Disks Due to High Shock Levels

The failure due to accidental drop of magnetic recording disks made of brittle or ductile materials is of great interest in the design of small form factor hard disk drives. In this study, fracture of glass disks (brittle material) and plastic deformation of aluminum disks (ductile material) at very high shock levels caused by accidental drop are investigated using finite element analysis. It is found that failure inception for both disk types occurs at the inside perimeter of the disk. For glass disks, cracks are found to propagate toward the outer perimeter of the disk along distinct radial lines associated with the largest bending moment of the disk. The critical shock level at which failure originates increases with an increase in the clamp diameter, a reduction in the disk diameter, and an increase in the thickness of the disk. Some experimental results are presented to validate the numerical model.