Experimental validation of a three-dimensional reduced-order continuum model of phonation

Due to the complex nature of the phonation process, a one-dimensional (1D) glottal flow description is often used in current phonation models. Although widely used in voice research, these 1D flow-based phonation models have not been rigorously validated against experiments. In this study, a 1D glottal flow model is coupled with a three-dimensional nonlinear continuum model of the vocal fold and its predictions are compared to physical model experiments. The results show that the 1D flow-based model is able to predict the phonation threshold pressure and onset frequency within reasonable accuracy and to reproduce major vibratory features observed in the experiments.