Copyright © 2012 L. Cveticanin. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

A review on mathematical and mechanical models of the vocal cords is given. The basic model is a two-mass nonlinear oscillator system which is accepted to be the basic one for mechanical description in voice production. The model is not only extended into three, five, and more mass systems, systems with time variable parameters and three-dimensional systems, but also simplified into one-mass system with coupled two-direction deflection and damping functions. The corresponding mathematical models are the systems of coupled second-order differential equations which describe the vibrations of the symmetric and asymmetric vocal folds. The models give the conditions for the regular and irregular motions like bifurcation and deterministic chaos in vocal folds. The obtained results are of special interest for detecting the pathology of vocal cords, when there are no visual effects of disease. Based on the results given in the paper, the objectives for future investigation in this matter are given.