Dynamics of discontinuity formation in a cavitating liquid layer under shock wave loading

The problem of experimental modeling of discontinuity formation in a cavitating liquid layer under shock wave loading is considered. It is shown that the discontinuity takes the shape of a spherical segment and retains it up to the closure instant. The discontinuity surface becomes covered with a dynamically growing thin boundary layer consisting of bubbles, which transforms to a ring-shaped vortex bubble cluster at the instant of the discontinuity closure, generating a secondary shock wave. Specific features of the structure of the cavitating flow discontinuity arising at loading intensities lower than 0.1 and 5 kJ are discussed.