Modeling flow through the posterior glottal gap
Ronald Callaway Scherer, Brittany Frazer, Guangnian Zhai · Proceedings of meetings on acoustics · 2013
The BGSU three mass model of phonation incorporates a posterior glottal gap. The airflow through the gap is governed by a simple hydraulic formula. The current study compares predictions of the gap size to the DC flow of three human subjects over two pitches at normal loudness. This work also explores the importance of the posterior gap by comparing extensive human mean subglottal pressure - mean flow - vocal process adduction data (from one subject) with the behavior of the model. The relation between glottal gap size to the DC flow for the 3 subjects was exceptionally strong (R^2 = 0.99). The relatively linear pressure-flow relationships at specific adduction values for the human data are hypothesized to be mimicked by the model, with a reasonable relationship to the size of the posterior glottal gap. [Support from NIH].