High-fidelity fluid-structure interaction modeling of bird vocalization in syrinx

Birds are useful models for studying human phonation since both of them learn vocal communication by mimicking. Traditional computational models help understand the basic mechanism in sound production and are very useful in parametric studies but limited by the largely simplified morphology and the lack of direct relationship between model input and tissue parameter. Thus the objectives of the current study are to: (a) develop a first-principle based, fluid-structure interaction computational model which can accurately reproduce the vibration of lateral vibration mass (LVM) and sound signal and (b) validate the model against experimental measurements on a rock pigeon syringeal model. In the current approach, a sharp-interface immersed-boundary-method based incompressible flow solver was utilized to model the air flow, and a finite element method based solid mechanics solver was utilized to model the vibration of LVM. Geometry of the syrinx was based on CT scans of the rock pigeon’s syrinx. The simulation results of the fundamental frequency, LVMs opening size, sound pressure level, laryngeal flow field were analyzed and compared to the experimental data.