Three-Dimensional Digital Waveguide Mesh Simulation of Cylindrical Vocal Tract Analogs

3D time-domain acoustic modeling techniques have the potential to produce more accurate simulation of the vocal tract than previously implemented 1D or 2D solutions, although the variability of human voice renders it a problematic benchmark for validation of its resynthesis. This study uses acoustic measurement of acrylic cylindrical vocal tract models derived from X-Ray data to assess the validity of comparable 3D digital waveguide mesh simulations. It is found that for more simple structures the 3D digital waveguide mesh is able to reproduce the acoustic behavior up to 10 kHz with only slight errors in resonant frequencies. As the simulated structures become more geometrically complex, this shifting becomes more severe.