Acoustic streaming resulting from compression of the cochlear bony capsule

Acoustic streaming resulting from the time-harmonic compression of the cochlear capsule is examined in this paper. The cochlear pressure is expressed as an integral equation in the cochlear partition velocity. Rapid spatial variation in the velocity of the cochlear partition requires one to treat high-order fluid modes within the cochlear fluid. Hence, evanescent pressure modes are needed in the analysis. Asymmetry in the oval and the round window velocity is shown to give rise to a pressure gradient across the cochlear partition. The time-average fluid motion is obtained using the method of matched asymptotic expansions in conjunction with numerical evaluation of the outer flow field.