Adaptive stabilized finite element framework for simulation of vocal fold turbulent fluid-structure interaction and towards aeroacoustics

Johan Jansson · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2013

As a step toward building a more complete model of voice production mechanics, we assess the feasibility of a fluid-structure simulation of the vocal fold mechanics in the Unicorn incompressible Unified Continuum framework. The Unicorn framework consists of conservation equations for mass and momentum, a phase function selecting solid or fluid constitutive laws, a convection equation for the phase function and moving mesh methods for tracking the interface, and discretization through an adaptive stabilized finite element method. The framework has been validated for turbulent flow for both low and high Reynolds numbers and has the following features: implicit turbulence modeling (turbulent dissipation only occurs through numerical stabilization), goal-oriented mesh adaptivity, strong, implicit fluid-structure coupling, and good scaling on massively parallel computers. We have applied the framework for turbulent fluid-structure interaction simulation of vocal folds, and present recent results. Initial steps toward aeroacoustics have been carried out in the framework (exhaust system and landing gear applications), and will be presented as well as the current state of aeroacoustic modeling for the human voice in the framework.

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