Re: Hard Drive Failure Reprise

On 12/8/24 5:05 PM, Farley Flud wrote:

If a metallic structure is grounded, it cannot develop a static
charge.

In what you described, friction with air is continuous, so it maintains some degree of non-zero charge formed on the surface even if the device is grounded. Charge is constantly moving of course, because of the grounding, but the net charge at a spot on the surface won't be zero where friction is taking place. This attracts particles of net opposite charge and eventually you have a lot of dust on your mesh.
Even in the absence of a fan blowing air at it, you see dust forming eventually because even the temperature difference between the metal mesh and air causes tiny air flow around it (convection) which in turn begins a tiny friction that's continuous, and as cooler air replaces the warmed one around the mesh (or vice versa depending on which has higher temperature) more and more particles come in contact with the mesh.
The charge on a mesh formed by continuous friction with air is more likely positive if the mesh is metal or glass, and likely negative if the mesh is plastic or rubber. So depending on what the mesh is made from, you can use air filter devices that can give negative or positive charge to the particles in your room, and choose one to create same sign charges on the particles that you have on your mesh, thus preventing the dust from getting attached to the mesh.