A Deep Learning-Based Generalized Empirical Flow Model of Glottal Flow During Normal Phonation

Abstract

This paper proposes a deep learning-based generalized empirical flow model (EFM) that can provide a fast and accurate prediction of the glottal flow during normal phonation. The approach is based on the assumption that the vibration of the vocal folds can be represented by a universal kinematics equation (UKE), which is used to generate a glottal shape library. For each shape in the library, the ground truth values of the flow rate and pressure distribution are obtained from the high-fidelity Navier–Stokes (N–S) solution. A fully connected deep neural network (DNN) is then trained to build the empirical mapping between the shapes and the flow rate and pressure distributions. The obtained DNN-based EFM is coupled with a finite element method (FEM)-based solid dynamics solver for fluid–structure–interaction (FSI) simulation of phonation. The EFM is evaluated by comparing the N-S solutions in both static glottal shapes and FSI simulations. The results demonstrate a good prediction performance in accuracy and efficiency.