ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomechanics
A fibril-scale viscohyperelastic model for the mechanics of vocal-fold tissues
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universite Grenoble Alpes, Saint-Martin-d'Hères, France
- 2Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris, France
- 3Grenoble INP - UGA, Grenoble, France
- 4Laboratoire Sols Solides Structures Risques, Grenoble, France
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Modeling the mechanics of human vocal folds during phonation is still a challenging task. This is partly due to the mechanics of their soft and highly anisotropic fibrous tissues, which can undergo finite strains with both elasticity and strain rate sensitivity. In this study, we propose a visco-hyperelastic micro-mechanical model capable of predicting the complex cyclic response of the vocal-fold fibrous tissues based on their histo-mechanical properties. For that purpose, we start from the hyperelastic micro-mechanical model proposed in [Terzolo et al., J Mech Behavior Biomed Mater 128 (2022)]. We include in the model non-linear viscoelastic contributions at the fibril scale to account for the dissipative and time-dependent response of vocal fold tissues. The relevance of the model is demonstrated and discussed through comparison with a comprehensive set of reference experimental data, within a wide range of loading modes, strains, and strain rates: cyclic and multiaxial loadings at finite strains (tension, compression and shear); small (SAOS) and large (LAOS) amplitude oscillatory shear from low to high frequencies. This study elucidates how the viscoelasticity of vocal-fold tissues can result from combined time-dependent micro-mechanisms, such as the kinematics and the deformation of their fibril bundles, as well as the mechanical interactions likely to develop among fibrils and the surrounding amorphous matrix.
Keywords: vocal folds, Fibril, 3D microstructure, Multiscale mechanical modeling, viscoelasticity, Multiaxial loadings, SAOS, Laos
Received: 21 Jul 2025; Accepted: 31 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Terzolo, Bailly and Orgéas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lucie Bailly, lucie.bailly@3sr-grenoble.fr
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