[Beowulf] Re: Disks fail at what acceleration? (Jim Lux)

[David Mathog]

Jim Lux wrote

> At 01:24 PM 3/22/2006, David Mathog wrote:
> >Anybody know how many g's a typical disk can withstand before it fails?
> 
> 
> A lot more than 1g...


> But, since you want "real numbers"
> http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_barracuda7200_9.pdf
> looks like 63 G shocks over 2msec, operating... 350 G over 1 msec, non-op.

Ok.  So it looks like a bolted rack should be ok so long as it moves
smoothly with the ground motions.  On the other hand a bunch of 
computers loosely restrained on shelves might or might not
exceed these limits when they bounce off the shelving sides or the back
wall.  Ditto for a desktop computer.  These collisions are going to
be more elastic than inelastic but there is some give in all of the
materials so the peak Gs even in that case probably won't exceed that
limit.  Unless of course one falls off the shelf and onto the
concrete floor...

Thanks,

David Mathog
mathog at caltech.edu
Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech