The phonation critical condition in rectangular glottis with wide prephonatory gaps

Abstract

The effect of the pressure recovery at glottal exit is introduced to modify the one-mass model. Using the modified one-mass model, the phonation critical condition, including phonation threshold pressure and phonation threshold flow, is analyzed by using the small-amplitude oscillation theory. It is found that the phonation threshold pressure is not sensitive to the change of the prephonatory glottal width at a wide glottal gap. This result agrees with previous experimental observations and suggests that the low slope of dependence of phonation threshold pressure on prephonatory gap found by Chan and Titze [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 119, 2351-2362 (2006)] could be a consequence of the pressure recovery effect at the glottal exit. In addition, it is predicted that the phonation threshold flow is always significantly increased with the prephonatory gap even at a wide prephonatory glottal gap. Therefore, the phonation threshold flow has an advantage in assessing the phonatory system at a wide prephonatory gap in comparison with the phonation threshold pressure. The phonation threshold flow can be a useful aerodynamic parameter for pathological conditions in which the incomplete glottal gap is often seen.