Vocal fold contact pattern during phonation and comparison to Hertzian contact theory

Abstract

The vocal folds are subject to repeated collision during phonation. The resulting contact pressure is often considered to play an important role in vocal fold injury, and has been measured in many experimental studies. In this study, vocal fold contact pattern and contact pressure during phonation were numerically investigated and compared to Hertzian contact theory. The results show that vocal fold contact in general occurs within a horizontal strip on medial surface, first appearing at the inferior medial surface and propagating upward. Because of the localized and traveling nature of vocal fold contact, sensors of a finite size may significantly underestimate the peak vocal fold contact pressure (by about as large as 80% for a sensor diameter of 2 mm), particularly for vocal folds of low transverse stiffness or thick medial surface. In general, the contact pressure increases with the size and curvature of the contact area, as predicted from Hertzian contact theory, indicating the possibility of estimating vocal fold contact pressure from medial surface kinematics. However, deviations from Hertzian theory were also observed, which need to be taken into consideration in estimating vocal fold contact pressure.