Quantifying the auto-oscillation complexity following water spraying with interest for phonation.

Human voiced sound production or phonation is the result of a fluid-structure instability in the larynx leading to vocal folds auto-oscillation. In this paper, the effect of surface hydration following water spraying (0 up to 5 ml) on an ongoing auto-oscillation is studied experimentally using different mechanical deformable vocal folds replicas. The complexity of the oscillation is quantified on the upstream pressure by a phase space recurrence and complexity analysis. It is shown that: (1) the ratio of the degree of determinism to the recurrence rate of the phase space states γ and (2) estimated correlation dimension D_{2} are suitable parameters to grasp the effect of hydration on the oscillation pattern. The oscillation regime after hydration can either remain deterministic or approach a chaotic regime depending on initial conditions prior to water spraying, such as elasticity, glottal aperture, as well as oscillation complexity.

In vitro validation of some flow assumptions for the prediction of the pressure distribution during obstructive sleep apnoea.

An adequate description of the pressure distribution exerted by the fluid flow on pharyngeal walls is a first requirement to enhance the understanding, modelling and, consequently, the prediction of airway collapse during obstructive sleep apnoea. From a fluid mechanical point of view, several flow assumptions can be formulated to reduce the governing flow equations. The relevance of some major flow assumptions and the accuracy of the resulting flow description with respect to obstructive sleep apnoea was investigated on a rigid geometrical replica of the pharynx. Special attention was given to the influence of geometrical asymmetry and to the position of the flow separation point. An in vitro experimental and theoretical study of steady pharyngeal fluid flow is presented for different constriction heights and upstream pressures. Pressure and velocity distributions along a rigid in vitro replica of the oro-pharyngeal cavity were compared with different flow predictions based on various assumptions. Fluid flow models were tested for volume flow rates ranging from 5 to 120 1 min(-1) and for minimum apertures between 1.45 and 3.00 mm. Two-dimensional flow models were required and predicted experimental results with an accuracy of 15%. Flow theories classically used in the case of a Starling resistor provided poor agreement.

Influence of collision on the flow through in-vitro rigid models of the vocal folds.

Measurements of pressure in oscillating rigid replicas of vocal folds are presented. The pressure upstream of the replica is used as input to various theoretical approximations to predict the pressure within the glottis. As the vocal folds collide the classical quasisteady boundary layer theory fails. It appears however that for physiologically reasonable shapes of the replicas, viscous effects are more important than the influence of the flow unsteadiness due to the wall movement. A simple model based on a quasisteady Bernoulli equation corrected for viscous effect, combined with a simple boundary layer separation model does globally predict the observed pressure behavior.