Computational Fluid Dynamics techniques were used to investigate the flow induced by a rotating magnetic drive in an experimental test facility. The work initially examined the global flow within the disk system before focusing on the flow local to the read-and-write head unit. The aim of the project was to investigate whether flow disturbances were the source of high frequency oscillations that were evident in the results obtained from the facility.
Both the global and local flow analysis presented challenges due to the complex nature of the governing flow physics. The global flow analysis showed the characteristics of the flow within the facility and the general nature of the flow local to the head. The analysis identified the origin of low and mid-range frequency flow disturbances, but did not provide information on the very high frequency content of the system. A literature review identified empirical correlations that suggested that the high frequencies observed could be the result of vortex shedding from the read-and-write head and its positioning structure.

CFD analysis was conducted for a 2D rectangular plate subjected to cross-flow conditions. The length of the plate was 10 times its height. Two different flow cases were examined with the Reynolds number of 200 and 300, respectively. The results showed strong vortex shedding behaviour with Strouhal Number of 1.2 and 1.5, respectively. Similar values can be found in open literature [1] for the applied range of flow parameters.