Biomechanical modeling of laryngeal dynamics

Interferences in the laryngeal area based on anatomical alterations or disturbances being only visible during vocal fold oscillations yield hoarseness. Most often, asymmetries caused by the vibrating vocal folds are the origin for this hoarseness. This work presents an enhancement of biomechanical models to simulate three dimensional vocal fold vibrations. The model consists of coupled mass-spring elements similar to Ishizaka and Flanagan (1972). The new model simulates the vibrations at 25 different positions for each vocal fold. The masses are arranged at 5 positions in longitudinal direction by 5 positions in vertical direction. The masses are capable to move in all three physical directions to better simulate human laryngeal vocal fold vibrations. The physical parameters applied in the model were chosen to visually fit real three-dimensional excised human vocal fold dynamics. Exemplarily, a symmetric dynamics simulation will be given.