Despite significant technological advancements in recent decades, users of hearing aids and hearing protection often report dissatisfaction due to an „unnatural“ auditory experience. These challenges highlight gaps in our understanding of the physical mechanisms underlying hearing. A familiar example of the complex vibroacoustic phenomena involved – and a major cause of dissatisfaction with hearing technologies – is the occlusion effect: blocking the ear canal alters how one’s own voice is perceived.

Experimentally assessing the underlying physics poses significant ethical and technical difficulties. Therefore, modeling and numerical simulations are essential tools for advancing our understanding of hearing. These investigations also require examining the vibroacoustic behavior of the inner ear, because it serves as the sensor for all pathways inside and around the head.

This thesis advances our understanding of the vibroacoustic mechanisms in hearing by systematically separating the auditory system into subsystems. First, the structural motion of the ear canal is analyzed, with particular emphasis on how the motions of the ear canal entrance and tympanic membrane interact with the vibrations of the ear canal wall in generating the sound pressure underlying the occlusion effect. Second, an anatomical finite element model of the human inner ear is introduced. This model is used to investigate the role of the cochlear partition’s flexibility by modeling parts of it as either rigid or flexible structures while applying both air and bone conduction stimulation.

Future work should integrate the insights gained from this work into comprehensive models, such as full-head finite element simulations, to further elucidate the interactions between the air and bone conduction pathways and their relative importance. Ultimately, these findings will contribute to improvements in hearing technologies.

Melden Sie sich hier an um Einladungen zu den Kolloquium-Vorträgen per E-Mail zu erhalten.
Register here to receive the invitations to colloquium talks via e-mail.

Zoom-Meeting-ID: 954 4073 3814
Passwort: 450783