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Numerical study of dynamic glottis and tidal breathing on respiratory sounds in a human upper airway model

  • Sleep Breathing Physiology and Disorders • Original Article
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Abstract

Background

Human snores are caused by vibrating anatomical structures in the upper airway. The glottis is a highly variable structure and a critical organ regulating inhaled flows. However, the effects of the glottis motion on airflow and breathing sound are not well understood, while static glottises have been implemented in most previous in silico studies. The objective of this study is to develop a computational acoustic model of human airways with a dynamic glottis and quantify the effects of glottis motion and tidal breathing on airflow and sound generation.

Methods

Large eddy simulation and FW-H models were adopted to compute airflows and respiratory sounds in an image-based mouth-lung model. User-defined functions were developed that governed the glottis kinematics. Varying breathing scenarios (static vs. dynamic glottis; constant vs. sinusoidal inhalations) were simulated to understand the effects of glottis motion and inhalation pattern on sound generation. Pressure distributions were measured in airway casts with different glottal openings for model validation purpose.

Results

Significant flow fluctuations were predicted in the upper airways at peak inhalation rates or during glottal constriction. The inhalation speed through the glottis was the predominating factor in the sound generation while the transient effects were less important. For all frequencies considered (20–2500 Hz), the static glottis substantially underestimated the intensity of the generated sounds, which was most pronounced in the range of 100–500 Hz. Adopting an equivalent steady flow rather than a tidal breathing further underestimated the sound intensity. An increase of 25 dB in average was observed for the life condition (sine-dynamic) compared to the idealized condition (constant-rigid) for the broadband frequencies, with the largest increase of approximately 40 dB at the frequency around 250 Hz.

Conclusion

Results show that a severely narrowing glottis during inhalation, as well as flow fluctuations in the downstream trachea, can generate audible sound levels.

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Funding

NSF provided financial support in the form of Grants CBET 1605434 (Xi) and 1605232 (Dong). This work was partially supported by NIH R01 CA204189 (Glide-Hurst). The supporters have no role in the design or conduct of this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, California Baptist University, 432 Magnolia Ave, Riverside, CA, 92504, USA

    Jinxiang Xi & Khaled Talaat

  2. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Zhaoxuan Wang

  3. Department of Radiation Oncology, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI, USA

    Carri Glide-Hurst

  4. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Haibo Dong

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  1. Jinxiang Xi
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Correspondence to Jinxiang Xi.

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Xi, J., Wang, Z., Talaat, K. et al. Numerical study of dynamic glottis and tidal breathing on respiratory sounds in a human upper airway model. Sleep Breath 22, 463–479 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-017-1588-0

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