The bone-conducted occlusion effect (OE) is a major source of acoustic discomfort for users of hearing aids, earbuds, earplugs,; related devices. Conventional objective OE measurements rely on in-ear microphones in human subjects, which are time-consuming, invasive,; difficult to control during product development. The aim of this paper is to present a new artificial ear, specifically designed for objective OE measurements under bone-conducted excitation, coupled with a finite element analysis (FEA) model developed in COMSOL Multiphysics. Both the model; the artificial ear demonstrate good agreement regarding the sound pressure found at the tympanic membrane for a conventional dome at shallow, medium; deep insertions. The validated FEA model is then used to perform a virtual test of the bone-conducted objective OE for different occluding devices, including plastic; foam earplugs; a conventional closed dome for hearing aids. This is to investigate the relative contributions; phases of the ear-canal; device surfaces govern the resulting occluded sound pressure. The proposed artificial ear; modeling approach provide a controlled; repeatable platform for studying the OE; for evaluating occluding devices during the development process.
