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FOR 894:  Fundamental Flow Analysis of the Human Voice

Subject Area Medicine
Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering
Mathematics
Thermal Engineering/Process Engineering
Term from 2007 to 2014
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 35819142
 
For communication, human beings do not have an extra organ, but use the anatomical structures, which are primarily designed for breathing and swallowing. These structures are summarised as the vocal tract. It has a narrow point within the larynx at the plane of the vocal folds. There, the primary voice signal is generated due to the periodic opening and closing process of the vocal folds, which are excited by the air pressure generated within the lungs. Above the vocal folds, within the upper vocal tract like the oral cavity the primary voice signal is modulated and then emitted. Currently, the excitation process of the vocal folds is described by the myoelastic theory as self excited oscillation whereas the modulation is described by the source-filter-theory. This combined process is not well understood in healthy as well as in diseased voices. Especially the hypothesis of the origin of hoarseness is mostly based on heuristic clinical assumptions.
Sound can be generated in the larynx due to three different mechanisms: volume induced, turbulence induced and sound induced due to mechanical vibration. Our group has the hypothesis, that
(1) the volume induced sound has mostly harmonic parts and yields good voice,
(2) the turbulence induced sound consists mostly of non-harmonic components and decreases voice quality,
(3) sound induced due to mechanical vibration is supposed to have minor influence on voice quality.
To gain new insight into voice production, we will cope with this challenge by an interdisciplinary group consisting of physicians, engineers and mathematicians. The strategy of the group is the application of different experimental and numerical models yielding detailed and fundamental knowledge about voice production.
The goal is the physical understanding of normal and pathological vocal fold dynamics and finally the understanding of the resulting acoustical signal. The dynamics within the larynx will be simulated by applying two different motivated physical laryngeal models: a water driven model and an air driven model. Additionally, numerical models will be developed, which are close to reality (Finite-Element-Models) for simulation of the fluid-structure-acoustic couplings. For fitting numerical models towards clinical recorded endoscopic vocal fold dynamics for deriving dynamical relevant parameters low dimensional models, 3D-multi-mass-models, will be applied.
DFG Programme Research Units
International Connection Austria

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