Effects of Vertical Glottal Duct Length on Intraglottal Pressures and Phonation Threshold Pressure in the Uniform Glottis

Abstract

According to Titze's 1988 derivations for phonation threshold pressure (PTP), there are a number of important variables that PTP depends upon. A primary one is the vertical glottal duct length T: PTP decreases if T is increased. Changing the length of T, however, may have a significant effect on other variables that PTP depends upon. This study examined the effects of lengthening the vertical uniform glottal duct on the transglottal and intraglottal pressures, and the derived transglottal pressure coefficients, for five glottal diameters (0.01, 0.02, 0.04, 0.08, and 0.16 cm) and three transglottal pressures (500, 1000, and 1500 Pa) for the uniform glottis by using the computational fluid dynamics code Fluent (for laminar, incompressible, two-dimensional flow). The results suggest the following: A longer vertical glottal duct length increases the intraglottal and transglottal pressures, and more so for smaller glottal diameters, and increases the transglottal pressure coefficient. In addition, unlike the transglottal pressure coefficient, the glottal entrance pressure coefficient is highly dependent on the vertical glottal duct length only for lower flows and Reynolds numbers, but is relatively independent of duct length, glottal diameter, and transglottal pressure above a flow value of approximately 50 cm3/s, suggesting that the entrance pressure coefficient is a relatively local phenomenon. These results suggest that the vertical glottal duct length and its effects need to be taken into consideration for vocal fold modeling, aeroacoustics purposes, and the estimation of PTP.