Effects of head geometry simplifications on acoustic radiation of vowel sounds based on time-domain finite-element simulations

Abstract

One of the key effects to model in voice production is that of acoustic radiation of sound waves emanating from the mouth. The use of three-dimensional numerical simulations allows to naturally account for it, as well as to consider all geometrical head details, by extending the computational domain out of the vocal tract. Despite this advantage, many approximations to the head geometry are often performed for simplicity and impedance load models are still used as well to reduce the computational cost. In this work, the impact of some of these simplifications on radiation effects is examined for vowel production in the frequency range 0–10 kHz, by means of comparison with radiation from a realistic head. As a result, recommendations are given on their validity depending on whether high frequency energy (above 5 kHz) should be taken into account or not.