Mechanical stress during phonation in a self-oscillating finite-element vocal fold model

The stress information during phonation in the vocal folds is helpful in understanding the etiologies of vocal trauma and its related vocal diseases, such as nodules. In this paper, a self-oscillating finite-element model, which combines aerodynamic properties, tissue mechanics, airflow-tissue interactions, and vocal fold collisions, was used to simulate the vocal fold vibration during phonation. The spatial and temporal characteristics of mechanical stress in the vocal folds were predicted by this model. Temporally, it was found that mechanical stress periodically undulates with vibration of the vocal folds and that vocal fold impact causes a jump in the normal stress value. Spatially, the normal stress is significantly higher on the vocal fold surface than inside of the vocal folds. At the midpoint of the medial surface, the peak-to-peak amplitude of the normal stress reaches its maximum value. Using different lung pressures (0–1.5 kPa) to drive the self-oscillating model, we found that lower lung pressure can effectively decrease the mechanical stress in the vocal folds. This study supports the fatigue damage hypothesis of vocal trauma. With this hypothesis and the numerical simulation in this study, the clinical observations of vocal fold trauma risk can be explained. This implies the mechanical stress predicted by this self-oscillating model could be valuable for predicting, preventing, and treating vocal fold injury.