# Effects of Sulcus Vocalis Depth on Phonation in Three-Dimensional Fluid-Structure Interaction Laryngeal Models

Authors: Changwei Zhou; Lili Zhang; Yuanbo Wu; Xiaojun Zhang; Di Wu; Zhi Tao
Journal: Applied Bionics and Biomechanics
 (2021)

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## Abstract

Sulcus vocalis is an indentation parallel to the edge of vocal fold, which may extend into the cover and ligament layer of the vocal fold or deeper. The effects of sulcus vocalis depthd on phonation and the vocal cord vibrations are investigated in this study. The three-dimensional laryngeal models were established for healthy vocal folds (0 mm) and different types of sulcus vocalis with the typical depth of 1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm. These models with fluid-structure interaction (FSI) are computed numerically by sequential coupling method, which includes an immersed boundary method (IBM) for modelling the glottal airflow, a finite-element method (FEM) for modelling vocal fold tissue. The results show that a deeper sulcus vocalis in the cover layer decreases the vibrating frequency of vocal folds and expands the prephonatory glottal half-width which increases the phonation threshold pressure. The larger sulcus vocalis depth makes vocal folds difficult to vibrate and phonate. The effects of sulcus vocalis depth suggest that the feature such as phonation threshold pressure could assist in the detection of healthy vocal folds and different types of sulcus vocalis.


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## Body

## 1. Introduction

Sulcus vocalis is related to the inhomogeneous damage of the cover and ligament with structural malformation of the vocal fold. This disease often leads to concomitant vocal fold disorders and has a significant influence on vocal fold vibratory function [1, 2]. According to clinical and histopathologic analysis, Ford et al. [3] have classified sulcus vocalis into three types: type I is a physiologic variant in cover of the vocal folds; type II and III are characterized by destruction of the intermediate and deep lamina propria, respectively. Different types of sulcus vocalis have different sulcus depth ranges.To explore the pathophysiology, clinical characteristics of sulcus vocalis, open and endoscopic procedures were applied by Seth et al. [4]. Welham et al. [5] used the Voice Handicap Index (VHI) for characterizing the psychosocial effect of disorders on patients with sulcus vocalis. Combining subjective and objective methods, Soares et al. [6] investigated the vocal characteristics of individuals with sulcus vocalis, especially including asymptomatic subjects, using suspension microlaryngoscopy, voice self-assessment, and acoustic evaluation of the voice. However, considering the aerodynamic theory of phonation, these methods ignore the effects of airflow viscosity.The features of vocal cord vibration and glottal jet dynamics are difficult to characterize with physical models and reduced-order vocal models. On the contrary, computational models do well in that. The distribution of pressure and airflow was obtained from studies of steady flow in laryngeal models [7]. For exploring the more complex biomechanical modelling of phonation, Alipour et al. [8] modelled an oscillating glottis to study pulsatile flow with a finite volume method. However, the forced oscillation model only characterized glottis dynamics, which ignored vortex dynamics and temporal flow variation, especially, significant asymmetric flow due to jet deflection. Thus, based on the combination of the two-mass vocal fold model and the Navier-Stokes equation, Xue et al. [9] focused on capturing asymmetric glottal jet deflection in an asymmetric larynx. In the past few decades, most of the scholars employed a two-dimensional laryngeal model [10, 11] for the sake of computational cost and complex laryngeal structure. However, experimental studies mostly have shown that the glottal flow is highly three-dimensional [12–14]. What is more, three-dimensional vibration could have influence on laryngeal pathologies for anterior-posterior vibration in the three-dimensional model, such as sulcus vocalis and vocal fold paralysis [15–17].Recently, the fluid-structure coupling method is widely applied in numerical simulation of the larynx model [18, 19]. Valasek et al. [20] coupled linear elastic problem with the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian form in order to model fluid-structure interaction problem. Smith and Thomson [21] investigated the effect of subglottic stenosis on vocal fold vibration by establishing a fully coupled finite element model of the vocal folds as well. Luo et al. [22] devised a coupled solver with the immersed boundary method to model the flow-structure interaction of phonation. Tian et al. [23] combined the immersed boundary flow solver with a nonlinear finite-element solid-mechanics solver, handling boundaries of large displacements with simple mesh generation. Chang et al. [24] studied the effect of geometric nonlinearity on the vocal fold and the airflow, suggested that accurate simulations of vocal fold dynamic needs the large-displacement formulation in a computational model. Although there are some numerical simulation studies of sulcus vocalis with respect to sulcus patients’ vocal fold vibration and hydrodynamic analysis, the effects of sulcus vocalis depth on phonation have not yet been performed. Sulcus vocalis that the depth is less than the cover of the vocal fold generally does not give rise to dysfunction, which is classified as type I. As the depth gets larger with sulcus extending into the intermediate and deep layers of vocal folds, these types of sulcus vocalis usually bring about moderate to severe anomaly.In current research, the three-dimensional laryngeal models are developed to simulate and study vocal fold vibrations as well as the aerodynamics in the larynx model with different sulcus vocalis depth.


## 2. Computational Model

We established a computational model of the larynx utilized by Zheng et al. [25]. In fact, the human vocal folds have three layers, consisting of cover, ligament, and muscle, and can be assumed to be made of a viscoelastic material which is transversally isotropic [26].For the reality of numerical simulation, the isotropic linear elastic material was applied in all layers with the density of 1070 kg/m3, and the Poisson ratio to be 0.4. The elastic modulus of cover, ligament, and body was 10, 100, and 40 kPa. In Figure 1, the larynx is assumed to be a rectangular duct. Based on the real size of the human larynx, the total length of the duct is 120 mm, and the length of supraglottal and false vocal folds is 63 mm and 23 mm, respectively, for the easy observation of glottal jet dynamics. The glottal gap which is the distance between vocal folds is 1 mm primarily. And the thickness T and depth of vocal folds are 10 mm and 9 mm. For the diseased vocal folds, the sulcus vocalis is modelled by shallow longitudinal furrow to cover, and the depth d is 1 mm, which is type I sulcus. In addition, there are shallow longitudinal furrows with depth of 2 mm and 3 mm, which are type II sulcus and type III sulcus, respectively. All types of sulcus vocalis have the same length with 2 mm. The sulcus depth of the healthy vocal fold is considered to be 0 mm in this study.Figure 1
(a) The geometry of computational domain with true and false vocal folds. (b) Type I sulcus vocalis (with depth of 1 mm). (c) Type II (2 mm). (d) Type III (3 mm).
(a)(b)(c)(d)The adduction of the vocal folds closes the glottis, thereby creating a barrier for the expulsion of air from the lungs. As air is forced from the lungs, the adducted vocal folds are pushed apart owing to air pressure, and the vocal folds are set into sustained flow-induced vibrations. Thus, the boundary conditions of vocal folds’ surfaces are fluid-structure interaction conditions. It is noted that the air pressure from the lungs is between 0.5 kPa and 2.5 kPa. When the human speaks normally, the pressure of the lungs is often considered as 1 kPa. Therefore, the total pressure on the inlet boundary is set to 1 kPa. And the relative pressure of the outlet boundary is equal to 0 kPa.


## 3. Numerical Method

Four laryngeal models are established with the depth of 0 mm, 1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm. The model with a depth of 0 mm corresponds to the healthy vocal folds, while the others are different types of sulcus vocalis. Numerical analysis of flow fields in the larynx with sulcus vocalis needs to consider the highly complex interaction between vocal fold tissue and glottal airflow. In this research, a flow-structure interaction computational solver is applied, which includes an immersed boundary method (IBM) [27, 28] for modelling the glottal airflow, a finite-element method (FEM) for modelling vocal fold tissue, and a sequential coupling method for fluid-structure interaction during phonation. Each model with fluid-structure interaction has the same computational domain. And sequential coupling method was applied to solve fluid-structure interaction problem.


### 3.1. Fluid Mechanics

The Mach number of the flow in the glottis is generally assumed to be smaller than 0.3 [29], which could be considered that the airflow is incompressible. Based on the laws of momentum and mass conservation, the governing set of airflow is as follows:
(1)∂ui∂xi=0,(2)∂ui∂t+∂uiuj∂xj=−1ρ∂P∂xi+v∂∂xj∂ui∂xj,where i,j=1,2,3,ui are the velocity components, P is the pressure, and ρ and v are the fluid density and kinematic viscosity.Equation (2) is discretized in space using a cell-centre collocated finite difference scheme. The description of the naming convention and location of variables used in the spatial discretization is shown in Figure 2.Figure 2
The description of the naming convention and location of variables used in the spatial discretization [30].Equation (2) is integrated in time using the fractional-step method [31], including three substeps.
(1)
A modified momentum equation with a previously computed pressure field is solved to calculate an intermediate velocityU∗.(3)Ui∗−uinΔt+123Nin−Nin−1=−1ρδPnδxi+12Di∗+Din,where Ni=δUjui/δxi,Di=vδ/δxjδui/δxj are the convective and diffusion terms, respectively, and δ/δx denotes a second-order central difference. The intermediate face-centre velocity U∗ is computed by averaging the neighboring cell-centre velocities u∗, and only the face velocity component normal to the cell-face is computed and stored. The averaging procedure is as follows:
(4)U~i=Ui∗+Δt1ρδPnδxicc,U~1=γvu~1P+1−γvu~1W,U~2=γsu~2P+1−γsu~2S,U~3=γbu~3P+1−γbu~3B,Ui∗=U~i−Δt1ρδPnδxifc,where γw, γs, and γb are linear interpolation weights for the west, south, and back face velocity components, respectively. cc and fc represent cell-centre and face-centre.
(2)
A pressure correction variableP′ is computed from the pressure correction equation(5)uin+1−ui∗Δt=−1ρδP′δxi.When the final velocityun+1 is divergence free, equation (5) is integrated the equation over the single cell, which results in the pressure Poisson equation as follows:
(6)1ρδδxiδP′δxi=1ΔtδUi∗δxi.A highly efficient multigrid method is applied to solve equation (6).
(3)
The pressure and velocity field is corrected by using pressure correction variableP′(7)Pn+1=Pn+P′,uin+1=ui∗−Δt1ρδP′δxicc,Uin+1=Ui∗−Δt1ρδP′δxifc.In this research, vocal folds and airway surface are represented by the unstructured mesh with triangular elements. The boundary conditions are imposed on the nodes of the triangular elements through either the prescribed motion or the computed motion from flow-structure interaction.


### 3.2. Structural Mechanics

Vocal folds are composed of multilayered tissue, which are nonlinear, transversely isotropic, and viscoelastic. Considering the fact that the deformation of the vocal folds during normal phonation, it can be assumed that the relationship between stress and strain is linear. Thus, the Kelvin-Voigt model [32] for linear viscoelastic material is adopted for vocal fold tissue.Based on the Kelvin-Voigt model, the constitutive law can be written as follows:(8)σ=Eε+Cε̇,where E and C are elasticity and damping matrix.The governing equation of solid dynamics is given by(9)ρs∂2ut∂t2=fi+∂σij∂xj,where i,j=1,2,3,σ is the stress tensor, ρs is the tissue density, f is the body force, and u is vocal fold tissue displacement.


### 3.3. Fluid-Structure Coupling

In order to ensure that the fluid-structure coupling follows the conservation principle, the following equations should be applied on the fluid-structure coupling interface.(10)τf·nf=τs·nsdf=ds.For the convenience of analysis, a general form of governing equations was established. And we solved unified equations with appropriate initial conditions and boundary conditions. This method solves the problem by coupling the fluid-structure control equations to the same equation matrix, which solving the fluid and structure governing equations in the same solver.(11)AffAfsAsfAssΔXftΔXst=BfBs,where t is the step size of time; Aff, ΔXft, and Bf denote system matrix of flow field, unsolved, and external force, respectively; and Asf and Afs represent the coupling matrix of fluid-structure.The methods of FSI include direct coupling and sequential coupling method. In fact, the direct coupling method calculates the fluid and solid equations at the same time, and there is no lag of calculation time. However, the direct coupling method results in calculation divergence and a large amount of calculation. Thus, we applied the sequential coupling method to fluid-solid coupling. The computation of fluid and structural domain is separate. Different solvers are used to calculate their physical variables, and the common variables are updated asynchronously. When the fluid solver sends pressure to the solid solver, it receives displacement computed by the solid solver.


## 3.1. Fluid Mechanics

The Mach number of the flow in the glottis is generally assumed to be smaller than 0.3 [29], which could be considered that the airflow is incompressible. Based on the laws of momentum and mass conservation, the governing set of airflow is as follows:
(1)∂ui∂xi=0,(2)∂ui∂t+∂uiuj∂xj=−1ρ∂P∂xi+v∂∂xj∂ui∂xj,where i,j=1,2,3,ui are the velocity components, P is the pressure, and ρ and v are the fluid density and kinematic viscosity.Equation (2) is discretized in space using a cell-centre collocated finite difference scheme. The description of the naming convention and location of variables used in the spatial discretization is shown in Figure 2.Figure 2
The description of the naming convention and location of variables used in the spatial discretization [30].Equation (2) is integrated in time using the fractional-step method [31], including three substeps.
(1)
A modified momentum equation with a previously computed pressure field is solved to calculate an intermediate velocityU∗.(3)Ui∗−uinΔt+123Nin−Nin−1=−1ρδPnδxi+12Di∗+Din,where Ni=δUjui/δxi,Di=vδ/δxjδui/δxj are the convective and diffusion terms, respectively, and δ/δx denotes a second-order central difference. The intermediate face-centre velocity U∗ is computed by averaging the neighboring cell-centre velocities u∗, and only the face velocity component normal to the cell-face is computed and stored. The averaging procedure is as follows:
(4)U~i=Ui∗+Δt1ρδPnδxicc,U~1=γvu~1P+1−γvu~1W,U~2=γsu~2P+1−γsu~2S,U~3=γbu~3P+1−γbu~3B,Ui∗=U~i−Δt1ρδPnδxifc,where γw, γs, and γb are linear interpolation weights for the west, south, and back face velocity components, respectively. cc and fc represent cell-centre and face-centre.
(2)
A pressure correction variableP′ is computed from the pressure correction equation(5)uin+1−ui∗Δt=−1ρδP′δxi.When the final velocityun+1 is divergence free, equation (5) is integrated the equation over the single cell, which results in the pressure Poisson equation as follows:
(6)1ρδδxiδP′δxi=1ΔtδUi∗δxi.A highly efficient multigrid method is applied to solve equation (6).
(3)
The pressure and velocity field is corrected by using pressure correction variableP′(7)Pn+1=Pn+P′,uin+1=ui∗−Δt1ρδP′δxicc,Uin+1=Ui∗−Δt1ρδP′δxifc.In this research, vocal folds and airway surface are represented by the unstructured mesh with triangular elements. The boundary conditions are imposed on the nodes of the triangular elements through either the prescribed motion or the computed motion from flow-structure interaction.


## 3.2. Structural Mechanics

Vocal folds are composed of multilayered tissue, which are nonlinear, transversely isotropic, and viscoelastic. Considering the fact that the deformation of the vocal folds during normal phonation, it can be assumed that the relationship between stress and strain is linear. Thus, the Kelvin-Voigt model [32] for linear viscoelastic material is adopted for vocal fold tissue.Based on the Kelvin-Voigt model, the constitutive law can be written as follows:(8)σ=Eε+Cε̇,where E and C are elasticity and damping matrix.The governing equation of solid dynamics is given by(9)ρs∂2ut∂t2=fi+∂σij∂xj,where i,j=1,2,3,σ is the stress tensor, ρs is the tissue density, f is the body force, and u is vocal fold tissue displacement.


## 3.3. Fluid-Structure Coupling

In order to ensure that the fluid-structure coupling follows the conservation principle, the following equations should be applied on the fluid-structure coupling interface.(10)τf·nf=τs·nsdf=ds.For the convenience of analysis, a general form of governing equations was established. And we solved unified equations with appropriate initial conditions and boundary conditions. This method solves the problem by coupling the fluid-structure control equations to the same equation matrix, which solving the fluid and structure governing equations in the same solver.(11)AffAfsAsfAssΔXftΔXst=BfBs,where t is the step size of time; Aff, ΔXft, and Bf denote system matrix of flow field, unsolved, and external force, respectively; and Asf and Afs represent the coupling matrix of fluid-structure.The methods of FSI include direct coupling and sequential coupling method. In fact, the direct coupling method calculates the fluid and solid equations at the same time, and there is no lag of calculation time. However, the direct coupling method results in calculation divergence and a large amount of calculation. Thus, we applied the sequential coupling method to fluid-solid coupling. The computation of fluid and structural domain is separate. Different solvers are used to calculate their physical variables, and the common variables are updated asynchronously. When the fluid solver sends pressure to the solid solver, it receives displacement computed by the solid solver.


## 4. Results

### 4.1. Validation and Vocal Fold Vibration

The time history of the displacement of a healthy vocal fold and sulcus vocalis inY direction is shown in Figures 3(a) and 3(b). Figure 3(a) suggests that the numerical simulation ran successfully for providing quasisteady cycles. The result from Vazifehdoostsaleh et al. [15] is included here for comparison. Figure 3 illustrates that the current results are in good agreement with previous simulation data. In addition, the displacement of the right side is greater than that of the left side in the sulcus vocalis, which also validates the credibility of the sulcus vocalis model.Figure 3
Variation of healthy vocal fold displacement versus time from this work (a) and A. Vazifehdoostsaleh’s result (c). Variation of right and left side displacement of sulcus vocalis (1 mm) versus time from this work (b) and A. Vazifehdoostsaleh’s result (d).
(a)(b)(c)(d)More importance is often attached to the glottal waveform for voice quality assessment. Due to the incompressibility of flow, it can be measured by the equipment which cover subject’s mouth and nose frequently. Several statistical parameters such as the fundamental frequency, the peak and mean glottal flow rate, and the open and skewing quotient [33] are usually extracted from this waveform to examine voice quality. The vibration frequency of the healthy vocal folds is estimated to be 107.5 Hz from Figure 3(a). The flow parameters for healthy vocal folds and sulcus vocalis (1 mm) were compared with other simulation and experimental data in Table 1; this simulation could appear to be the representation of real human phonation.Table 1
Comparison of flow parameters for healthy vocal folds and sulcus vocalis (1 mm).
Typical range for healthy vocal foldsA. Vazifehdoostsaleh (2018)Present resultHealthy vocal foldsSulcus vocalisHealthy vocal foldsSulcus vocalisF0 (Hz)65-260 [34]104.283.3107.585.0Qmax (ml/s)200-580 [35]345.1390.0359.2407.5Qmean (ml/s)110-220 [34]198.2226.2186.5241.4The vibration of the vocal folds is much more complex, which behaves partly like string and partly like spring. The fundamental frequencyF0 of vocal folds can be expressed by equating the expressions for a vibrating string and spring.
(12)F0=12Lσρ=12πkm,where L is the length of vocal folds, σ is the stress, ρ is tissue density, k is the stiffness of vocal folds, and m is the mass of vocal folds.The expression of the mass of vocal fold ism=ρLTD, where ρ and T are the density and thickness of vocal folds and D is the depth of the cover layer in that only the pliable cover of vocal folds is vibrating during soft talking. The effective stiffness of vocal folds k can be derived from equation (11), which is k=π2σTD/L. Then, the expression for stiffness of sulcus vocalis ks is π2/LσTD−d. The stress σ is constant with the same elastic modulus and lung pressure. Thereby, an increase in sulcus depth d will produce a lower vibrating frequency of vocal folds.The vibrating frequency of the sulcus vocalis is estimated to be about 85 Hz from Figure4. The vibrating frequency of the sulcus vocalis (1 mm) is lower than that of the healthy vocal cord (0 mm). A deeper sulcus vocalis in the cover layer decreases the fundamental frequency and amplitude of the vibration. However, when the sulcus depth gets larger that extends into the ligament layer or deeper, the vibrating frequency of vocal folds has almost no change, which is identical to the expression of fundamental frequency.Figure 4
The right side displacement of vocal folds inY direction of sulcus vocalis(1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm).


### 4.2. Dynamics of the Glottal Jet

The glottal flow could exhibit a variety of phenomena such as jet deflection, flow transition, and instability of jet. These phenomena have a close relation with the quality of voice and phonation. And the spatial and temporal details of the glottal jet could be performed by numerical simulation with finite element analysis methods. Figure5 illustrates the contours of the glottal jet for healthy vocal folds (0 mm) and sulcus vocalis with the typical depth of 1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm during one vibration cycle.Figure 5
Contours of velocity at four different time instants in one cycle for healthy vocal fold (0 mm) and sulcus vocalis with different depths (1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm).In Figure5, time instants of one cycle were selected instead of specific time due to the different vibration frequency of healthy vocal fold and three types of the sulcus vocalis. At the time instant of 0.1 T, a glottal jet emanated from the glottal gap as the vocal folds were diverging. What is more, the glottal jet was symmetrical whether the computational model is healthy vocal fold or sulcus vocalis at the beginning of the cycle. However, when the glottis further opened, the front of the glottal jet was attaching to one side of the glottal tract, which is a notable phenomenon called the Coanda Effect. The existence of the glottal jet deflection is debated now. Comparing with other studies that performed the glottal jet deflection [36, 37], Xue et al. [33] found that the glottal jet was almost symmetric, which had no strong jet deflection for the sake of the application of more realistic geometric configuration.In our research, the laryngeal models with simplified geometric configuration and isotropic material properties were applied. The flow deflection occurred in the laryngeal models with a depth of 0 mm, 1 mm, and 2 mm. It should be noticed that the glottal jet was nearly symmetrical during three quarters of a cycle in the model with a depth of 3 mm. In addition, the jet deflection was decreasing when the depth of sulcus vocalis increased.Figure6 exhibits a more quantitative comparison about total velocities between the laryngeal models with different sulcus depths. The velocity data were extracted along cross-lines that are located in the X-Y plane of different laryngeal models as Figure 6(a) shows. The max total velocity of 0 mm laryngeal model was larger than other types of laryngeal models on line 1 shown in Figure 6(a), which is in the centre of the glottis. It is also presented that the speed curve is symmetrical about y=10 mm from line 1 to 3 in Figure 6(b). When the cross-line was in the region of inferior glottis, the location of the max velocity was gradually changing to up or down side in the Y direction. It can be presented that the glottal jet tended to be deflected into upper or lower walls of the glottal tract, which indicated that the direction of the jet deflection is stochastic.Figure 6
Total velocities, plotted along the six lines located in the X-Y plane.
(a)(b)


### 4.3. Pressure Distribution and Phonation Threshold Pressure

Vibration of the vocal cord is governed primarily by the principles of aerodynamics, structural dynamics, and fluid-structure interactions. It could assist in revealing the effects of different sulcus vocalis depths on phonation by studying glottal pressure distribution. With FSI numerical method in a 3D computational model, phonation threshold pressure was estimated to study the effects further.Figure7 illustrates the variation of glottal pressure distributions for the line (y=10 mm, z=7 mm) for the laryngeal models with different sulcus depths at four different time instants during one vibration cycle, respectively. It is presented that glottal pressure has one pressure drop at x=30 mm in Figure 7(a), which is the centre of the glottis. However, the glottal pressure occurs two pressure drops for sulcus vocalis; one is at the entrance of sulcus vocalis, and the other is at the exit of sulcus vocalis. Based on the inference of Bernoulli’s principle, the airflow in the vocal tract accelerates due to the reduction of fluid area, which makes the pressure of airflow falls quickly. After entering the sulcus vocalis, the pressure of airflow rises slowly until the airflow arrives at the exit of sulcus vocalis. What is more, it should be noted that with sulcus vocalis depth increasing, the minimal glottal pressure gradually gets larger and the gradient of glottal pressure became smaller.Figure 7
Glottal pressure distribution at different time-instant of one cycle. (a) 0 mm. (b) 1 mm. (c) 2 mm. (d) 3 mm.
(a)(b)(c)(d)Phonation threshold pressure is associated with pathological voice frequently, which is the minimal glottal pressure needed to initiate and sustain vocal fold vibration [38], for the sake of the sensitivity in laryngeal biomechanics’ changes. In this research, the validated computational model was applied to obtain phonation threshold pressure. Figure 8 shows the time evolution of the pressure at the entrance of the glottis.Figure 8
Variation of pressure at the entrance of the glottis with time.According to Titze’s derivations for phonation threshold pressure [39], phonation threshold pressure Pth for sulcus vocalis is ktBcξ0+d/T, where kt is a transglottal pressure coefficient, B is the viscous damping coefficient, c is the velocity of the mucosal wave, and ξ0 is the prephonatory glottal half-width. For the vocal fold model with sulcus depth of 0 mm, the vocal fold starts to vibrate when the pressure at the entrance of the glottis is up to 450 Pa. The general description for the variation of pressure with time is the following: (1) the pressures at the entrance of the glottis dropped to different suitable values to initiate and sustain vocal fold vibration, when the pressure on the inlet surface was 1000 Pa. As the vocal folds started to converge and diverge, the pressure curves were quasi-periodic waveforms based on phonation threshold pressure. (2) For sulcus depths of 0 mm, 1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm, the phonation threshold pressures in the sulcus vocalis were obviously larger than in the healthy vocal folds. The phonation threshold pressure raise at glottal entry became more prominent with increasing sulcus vocalis depth. The change of sulcus vocalis depth expands the prephonatory glottal half-width, which is a significant factor of phonation threshold pressure according to its expression. These results suggest that pressure distribution and phonation threshold pressure will be highly sensitive to sulcus vocalis with different depth. The deeper sulcus vocalis will increase phonation threshold pressure, making it difficult to vibrate and phonate.


## 4.1. Validation and Vocal Fold Vibration

The time history of the displacement of a healthy vocal fold and sulcus vocalis inY direction is shown in Figures 3(a) and 3(b). Figure 3(a) suggests that the numerical simulation ran successfully for providing quasisteady cycles. The result from Vazifehdoostsaleh et al. [15] is included here for comparison. Figure 3 illustrates that the current results are in good agreement with previous simulation data. In addition, the displacement of the right side is greater than that of the left side in the sulcus vocalis, which also validates the credibility of the sulcus vocalis model.Figure 3
Variation of healthy vocal fold displacement versus time from this work (a) and A. Vazifehdoostsaleh’s result (c). Variation of right and left side displacement of sulcus vocalis (1 mm) versus time from this work (b) and A. Vazifehdoostsaleh’s result (d).
(a)(b)(c)(d)More importance is often attached to the glottal waveform for voice quality assessment. Due to the incompressibility of flow, it can be measured by the equipment which cover subject’s mouth and nose frequently. Several statistical parameters such as the fundamental frequency, the peak and mean glottal flow rate, and the open and skewing quotient [33] are usually extracted from this waveform to examine voice quality. The vibration frequency of the healthy vocal folds is estimated to be 107.5 Hz from Figure 3(a). The flow parameters for healthy vocal folds and sulcus vocalis (1 mm) were compared with other simulation and experimental data in Table 1; this simulation could appear to be the representation of real human phonation.Table 1
Comparison of flow parameters for healthy vocal folds and sulcus vocalis (1 mm).
Typical range for healthy vocal foldsA. Vazifehdoostsaleh (2018)Present resultHealthy vocal foldsSulcus vocalisHealthy vocal foldsSulcus vocalisF0 (Hz)65-260 [34]104.283.3107.585.0Qmax (ml/s)200-580 [35]345.1390.0359.2407.5Qmean (ml/s)110-220 [34]198.2226.2186.5241.4The vibration of the vocal folds is much more complex, which behaves partly like string and partly like spring. The fundamental frequencyF0 of vocal folds can be expressed by equating the expressions for a vibrating string and spring.
(12)F0=12Lσρ=12πkm,where L is the length of vocal folds, σ is the stress, ρ is tissue density, k is the stiffness of vocal folds, and m is the mass of vocal folds.The expression of the mass of vocal fold ism=ρLTD, where ρ and T are the density and thickness of vocal folds and D is the depth of the cover layer in that only the pliable cover of vocal folds is vibrating during soft talking. The effective stiffness of vocal folds k can be derived from equation (11), which is k=π2σTD/L. Then, the expression for stiffness of sulcus vocalis ks is π2/LσTD−d. The stress σ is constant with the same elastic modulus and lung pressure. Thereby, an increase in sulcus depth d will produce a lower vibrating frequency of vocal folds.The vibrating frequency of the sulcus vocalis is estimated to be about 85 Hz from Figure4. The vibrating frequency of the sulcus vocalis (1 mm) is lower than that of the healthy vocal cord (0 mm). A deeper sulcus vocalis in the cover layer decreases the fundamental frequency and amplitude of the vibration. However, when the sulcus depth gets larger that extends into the ligament layer or deeper, the vibrating frequency of vocal folds has almost no change, which is identical to the expression of fundamental frequency.Figure 4
The right side displacement of vocal folds inY direction of sulcus vocalis(1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm).


## 4.2. Dynamics of the Glottal Jet

The glottal flow could exhibit a variety of phenomena such as jet deflection, flow transition, and instability of jet. These phenomena have a close relation with the quality of voice and phonation. And the spatial and temporal details of the glottal jet could be performed by numerical simulation with finite element analysis methods. Figure5 illustrates the contours of the glottal jet for healthy vocal folds (0 mm) and sulcus vocalis with the typical depth of 1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm during one vibration cycle.Figure 5
Contours of velocity at four different time instants in one cycle for healthy vocal fold (0 mm) and sulcus vocalis with different depths (1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm).In Figure5, time instants of one cycle were selected instead of specific time due to the different vibration frequency of healthy vocal fold and three types of the sulcus vocalis. At the time instant of 0.1 T, a glottal jet emanated from the glottal gap as the vocal folds were diverging. What is more, the glottal jet was symmetrical whether the computational model is healthy vocal fold or sulcus vocalis at the beginning of the cycle. However, when the glottis further opened, the front of the glottal jet was attaching to one side of the glottal tract, which is a notable phenomenon called the Coanda Effect. The existence of the glottal jet deflection is debated now. Comparing with other studies that performed the glottal jet deflection [36, 37], Xue et al. [33] found that the glottal jet was almost symmetric, which had no strong jet deflection for the sake of the application of more realistic geometric configuration.In our research, the laryngeal models with simplified geometric configuration and isotropic material properties were applied. The flow deflection occurred in the laryngeal models with a depth of 0 mm, 1 mm, and 2 mm. It should be noticed that the glottal jet was nearly symmetrical during three quarters of a cycle in the model with a depth of 3 mm. In addition, the jet deflection was decreasing when the depth of sulcus vocalis increased.Figure6 exhibits a more quantitative comparison about total velocities between the laryngeal models with different sulcus depths. The velocity data were extracted along cross-lines that are located in the X-Y plane of different laryngeal models as Figure 6(a) shows. The max total velocity of 0 mm laryngeal model was larger than other types of laryngeal models on line 1 shown in Figure 6(a), which is in the centre of the glottis. It is also presented that the speed curve is symmetrical about y=10 mm from line 1 to 3 in Figure 6(b). When the cross-line was in the region of inferior glottis, the location of the max velocity was gradually changing to up or down side in the Y direction. It can be presented that the glottal jet tended to be deflected into upper or lower walls of the glottal tract, which indicated that the direction of the jet deflection is stochastic.Figure 6
Total velocities, plotted along the six lines located in the X-Y plane.
(a)(b)


## 4.3. Pressure Distribution and Phonation Threshold Pressure

Vibration of the vocal cord is governed primarily by the principles of aerodynamics, structural dynamics, and fluid-structure interactions. It could assist in revealing the effects of different sulcus vocalis depths on phonation by studying glottal pressure distribution. With FSI numerical method in a 3D computational model, phonation threshold pressure was estimated to study the effects further.Figure7 illustrates the variation of glottal pressure distributions for the line (y=10 mm, z=7 mm) for the laryngeal models with different sulcus depths at four different time instants during one vibration cycle, respectively. It is presented that glottal pressure has one pressure drop at x=30 mm in Figure 7(a), which is the centre of the glottis. However, the glottal pressure occurs two pressure drops for sulcus vocalis; one is at the entrance of sulcus vocalis, and the other is at the exit of sulcus vocalis. Based on the inference of Bernoulli’s principle, the airflow in the vocal tract accelerates due to the reduction of fluid area, which makes the pressure of airflow falls quickly. After entering the sulcus vocalis, the pressure of airflow rises slowly until the airflow arrives at the exit of sulcus vocalis. What is more, it should be noted that with sulcus vocalis depth increasing, the minimal glottal pressure gradually gets larger and the gradient of glottal pressure became smaller.Figure 7
Glottal pressure distribution at different time-instant of one cycle. (a) 0 mm. (b) 1 mm. (c) 2 mm. (d) 3 mm.
(a)(b)(c)(d)Phonation threshold pressure is associated with pathological voice frequently, which is the minimal glottal pressure needed to initiate and sustain vocal fold vibration [38], for the sake of the sensitivity in laryngeal biomechanics’ changes. In this research, the validated computational model was applied to obtain phonation threshold pressure. Figure 8 shows the time evolution of the pressure at the entrance of the glottis.Figure 8
Variation of pressure at the entrance of the glottis with time.According to Titze’s derivations for phonation threshold pressure [39], phonation threshold pressure Pth for sulcus vocalis is ktBcξ0+d/T, where kt is a transglottal pressure coefficient, B is the viscous damping coefficient, c is the velocity of the mucosal wave, and ξ0 is the prephonatory glottal half-width. For the vocal fold model with sulcus depth of 0 mm, the vocal fold starts to vibrate when the pressure at the entrance of the glottis is up to 450 Pa. The general description for the variation of pressure with time is the following: (1) the pressures at the entrance of the glottis dropped to different suitable values to initiate and sustain vocal fold vibration, when the pressure on the inlet surface was 1000 Pa. As the vocal folds started to converge and diverge, the pressure curves were quasi-periodic waveforms based on phonation threshold pressure. (2) For sulcus depths of 0 mm, 1 mm, 2 mm, and 3 mm, the phonation threshold pressures in the sulcus vocalis were obviously larger than in the healthy vocal folds. The phonation threshold pressure raise at glottal entry became more prominent with increasing sulcus vocalis depth. The change of sulcus vocalis depth expands the prephonatory glottal half-width, which is a significant factor of phonation threshold pressure according to its expression. These results suggest that pressure distribution and phonation threshold pressure will be highly sensitive to sulcus vocalis with different depth. The deeper sulcus vocalis will increase phonation threshold pressure, making it difficult to vibrate and phonate.


## 5. Discussion

The increase in depth of sulcus vocalis changes the biomechanical properties of the vocal folds, which compromises the pliability of the vocal fold. The glottis closure is crippled by the indentation that extends into the ligament layer or deeper. Thus, the superior glottal angle becomes larger which leads to the lower velocity in the glottis as the sulcus vocalis depth increases from 1 mm to 3 mm. The lower velocity of the jet reduces the interactions of vortices with each other. When the sulcus vocalis depth gets biggest, the motion of vortices emerging downstream of the glottis is rarely influenced by the mutual induction. This hardly brings about asymmetric vortex structures, and there is almost no change in the flow direction. On the other hand, the increase of sulcus vocalis expands the geometry in the vertical direction suddenly. More airflow is gathered in the sulcus vocalis which could affect the supra-glottal vortex structure that is related to the glottal jet deflection.The pressure in the glottis occurs unstable fluctuations for sulcus vocalis. When there is a sulcus vocalis, the pressure appears two short-term rebounds and returns to 0 Pa finally. Due to the discrepancy of sulcus vocalis depth, phonation threshold pressure reaches a different value. In the condition of the same lung pressure, phonation threshold pressure increases with deeper sulcus vocalis. The larger phonation threshold pressure becomes, the more energy to overcome the viscous resistance and friction of the airflow is required. Hence, the sulcus vocalis and increased sulcus vocalis depth will cause vocal fatigue and harsh vocal quality.The sulcus vocalis models with different depths could be a tool to observe and connect the physical mechanism of the disorder and their causes to symptoms, furtherly conducting qualitative and quantitative comparison of healthy and sulcus vocalis. This method is noninvasive, which provides clinicians with guidelines about the treatment of sulcus vocalis.


## 6. Conclusion

Three-dimensional FSI laryngeal models that consist of fully coupled vocal folds have been applied to enhance the understanding of the effects of sulcus vocalis depth on phonation. The simulation results computed by the sequential fluid-structure coupling method for healthy vocal folds are verified to be within the normal physiological range. And then, three models with different sulcus vocalis are developed to study the vibration of vocal folds, the glottal jet dynamics, pressure distribution, and phonation threshold pressure. In addition, with increasing sulcus vocalis depth, the glottal jet deflection is not obvious and the glottal jet tends to be symmetrical. Finally, the glottal pressure has dropped twice in the direction of airflow for the sake of sulcus vocalis. As the sulcus vocalis depth increases, the phonation threshold pressures in the different types of laryngeal models get larger, which disturbs phonation and leads to poor voice quality.The primary contributions of this study are the following: (1) under the promise of the same lung pressure, the deeper sulcus vocalis in the cover layer decreases the vibrating frequency of vocal folds. It also increases the phonation threshold pressure and influences the vortex structures, which weakens the glottal jet deflection; (2) different sulcus vocalis depths correspond to three types of sulcus vocalis. The effects of sulcus depth on phonation suggest that aeroacoustic parameters like phonation threshold pressures could be used to detect different types of sulcus vocalis. It may help for the clinical diagnosis of three types of sulcus vocalis and healthy vocal folds.



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*Source: 6662625-2021-04-09.xml*