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Steady streaming in a two-dimensional box model of a passive cochlea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2014

Elisabeth Edom
Affiliation:
Institute of Fluid Dynamics, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
Dominik Obrist*
Affiliation:
Institute of Fluid Dynamics, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, University of Bern, 3010 Bern, Switzerland
Leonhard Kleiser
Affiliation:
Institute of Fluid Dynamics, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
*
Email address for correspondence: dominik.obrist@artorg.unibe.ch

Abstract

Acoustic stimulation of the cochlea leads to a travelling wave in the cochlear fluids and on the basilar membrane (BM). It has long been suspected that this travelling wave leads to a steady streaming flow in the cochlea. Theoretical investigations suggested that the steady streaming might be of physiological relevance. Here, we present a quantitative study of the steady streaming in a computational model of a passive cochlea. The structure of the streaming flow is illustrated and the sources of streaming are closely investigated. We describe a source of streaming which has not been considered in the cochlea by previous authors. This source is also related to a steady axial displacement of the BM which leads to a local stretching of this compliant structure. We present theoretical predictions for the streaming intensity which account for these new phenomena. It is shown that these predictions compare well with our numerical results and that there may be steady streaming velocities of the order of millimetres per second. Our results indicate that steady streaming should be more relevant to low-frequency hearing because the strength of the streaming flow rapidly decreases for higher frequencies.

Type
Papers
Copyright
© 2014 Cambridge University Press 

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