Objective To study the effects of thickness and stiffness of tympanic membrane on sound transmission of human ear. Methods A healthy living volunteer is scanned using spiral CT to obtain the whole temporal bone showing. The images are digitized by Matlab program along the outlines of the ear structures. The digitized outlines are then imported into ANSYS to construct a three-dimensional finite element model of the human ear.R esults The uniform pressure of 105 dB is applied on the entrance of the ear canal, and the harmonic analysis is calculated on the model within the frequency range of 200-8000 Hz. The model is set to analyze the displacement change of tympanic membrane and stapes footplate of the pathologic tympanic membrane.C onclusion The principle of sound transmission was explained based on the numerical method. The results may provide the useful mechanical reference for tympanic membrane reconstruction.