On the viscous-inviscid interaction of the flow passing through the glottis

Abstract

A model of flow passing through the glottis is presented, that assumes a boundary layer. The fluid dynamic theory implies that a thin boundary layer formed in the vicinity of the glottal wall characterizes the flow behavior, including the flow separation, jet formation, and pressure loss across the channel. To analyze the boundary layer accurately, methods have been developed for solving the integral momentum relation on the basis of the similarity of the velocity profiles inside the layer, by assuming that the core flow velocity is known. On the other hand, development of the boundary layer reduces the effective size of the channel and increases the core flow velocity, thus causing the problem of viscous-inviscid interaction of the boundary layer. In this paper, the interactive boundary-layer problem is solved for glottal flow, and numerical results are compared with a conventional non-interactive model. In addition, the effects of the Reynolds number and glottal configuration on the flow behavior have been examined to validate the usefulness of the proposed flow analysis method.