Mechanical modeling of palatal snoring

Abstract

The mechanism of human snoring caused by vibration of the soft palate and the characteristics of the noise are investigated. The soft palate becomes unstable and vibrates violently once the inspiratory flow exceeds a critical speed. The physiological phenomenon is modeled by studying flow over a flexible plate. In determining the stability of this flow, the trailing edge conditions are crucial. It is found that the noise generated in the simple experimental configuration has distinct characteristics found in human snores. For example, there is an antiphase relation between unsteady pressures from the oral and nasal channels and this provides a feature that distinguishes snoring by vibration of the soft palate from that caused by other parts of the human airway.