Simulations of air slider bearings with realistic gas-surface scattering

We have calculated the pressure distribution for an infinitely wide plane slider air bearing by using a particle-based direct simulation Monte Carlo method. These simulations include a sophisticated gas-surface scattering model and take measured accommodation coefficients as inputs. Our results are in good agreement with the molecular gas lubrication theory of Fukui and Kaneko for both glass and disk-drive surfaces. © 1998 by ASME.