Computation of head-disk interface gap micro flowfields using DSMC and continuum-atomistic hybrid methods

This paper discusses computational modeling of micro flow in the head–disk interface (HDI) gap using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. Modeling considerations are discussed in detail both for a stand‐alone DSMC computation and for the case of a hybrid continuum–atomistic simulation that couples the Navier–Stokes (NS) equation to a DSMC solver. The impact of the number of particles and number of cells on the accuracy of a DSMC simulation of the HDI gap is investigated both for two‐ and three‐dimensional configurations. An appropriate implicit boundary treatment method for modeling inflow and outflow boundaries is used in this work for a three‐dimensional DSMC micro flow simulation. As the flow outside the slider is in the continuum regime, a hybrid continuum–atomistic method based on the Schwarz alternating method is used to couple the DSMC model in the slider bearing region to the flow outside the slider modeled by NS equation. Schwarz coupling is done in two dimensions by taking overlap regions along two directions and the Chapman–Enskog distribution is employed for imposing the boundary condition from the continuum region to the DSMC region. Converged hybrid flow solutions are obtained in about five iterations and the hybrid DSMC–NS solutions show good agreement with the exact solutions in the entire domain considered. An investigation on the impact of the size of the overlap region on the convergence behavior of the Schwarz method indicates that the hybrid coupling by the Schwarz method is weakly dependent on the size of the overlap region. However, the use of a finite overlap region will facilitate the exchange of boundary conditions as the hybrid solution has been found to diverge in the absence of an overlap region for coupling the two models. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.