Vocal Fold Collision Modeling

When vocal folds vibrate at normal speaking frequencies, collisions occurs. The numerics and formulations behind a position-based continuum model of contact is an active field of research in the contact mechanics community. In this paper, a frictionless three-dimensional finite element model of the vocal fold collision is proposed, which incorporates different procedures used in contact mechanics and mathematical optimization theories. The penalty approach and the Lagrange multiplier method are investigated. The contact force solution obtained by the penalty formulation is highly dependent on the penalty parameter value. Furthermore, the Lagrange approach shows poor results with regard to instantaneous contact force estimation. This motivates the use of an Augmented Lagrange approach to regularize the Lagrange contact force solution. Finally, the effect of the interpenetration volume on contact force and contact area computations is illustrated.