Finite element modeling of the effects of velopharyngeal opening on vocal tract reactance in female voice

0546670 - ÚT 2022 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Vampola, T. - Horáček, Jaromír - Laukkanen, A. M.
Finite element modeling of the effects of velopharyngeal opening on vocal tract reactance in female voice.
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Roč. 150, č. 3 (2021), s. 2154-2162. ISSN 0001-4966. E-ISSN 1520-8524
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA19-04477S
Institutional support: RVO:61388998
Keywords : nasality * singing voice * passaggi (register boundary frequencies) * inertance * reactance
OECD category: Acoustics
Impact factor: 2.482, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/10.0006370

Classical singers use nasal consonants as “resonance exercises”, and experimental results have shown that singers may use some velopharyngeal opening (VPO), most often in [a:] and more seldom in [i:] or [u:]. In particular, male singers have been found to increase VPO as pitch rises toward register change frequencies (passaggi). Laryngoscopic findings have shown that some VPO stabilizes vocal fold vibration, the effect is related to positive reactance. This study investigates the effects of VPO on vocal tract (VT) reactance over the range of fundamental frequencies (f0) used in singing using a computerized tomography-based finite element model of the VT and nose of a female. According to the results, by raising the lowest VT resonances, the VPO increased the VT reactance in the frequency ranges 207–359 Hz for [i:], 265–411 Hz for [u:], and 500–611 Hz for [a:], depending on the VPO size (full or half VPO). These frequency ranges are close to the first and second passaggio of a female singer. The change may have an especially practical stabilizing effect for [a:], which is otherwise characterized by very large changes in VT reactance and negative reactance at the second passaggio.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0327068