As part of Purdue University’s Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Seminar Series, Professor and Chair of GW Engineering’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Michael Plesniak, delivered a talk on his lab’s ongoing work to understand the complex flow physics present when there is a polyp on the vocal fold. In his talk, “Vortex Dynamics Downstream of a Surface Protuberance in Highly Pulsatile Flow,” Plesniak focused on his fundamental studies of pulsatile flow over a bump with introductory material to illustrate the speech pathology motivation.
Here is an excerpt from the abstract: “Voice disorders are prevalent, affecting nearly 30% of the population during their lifetimes and resulting in an annual cost of treatment of over $10 billion, as well as significant degradation of quality of life. The overarching motivation for studying flow associated with phonation is to facilitate evaluation and design of disease treatment interventions and for surgical planning.”
Learn more on Purdue’s website.