The formation of vortex shocks in a 3D subsonic flow behind a weak shock wave emerging from a channel

The structure of a 3D subsonic flow behind a diffracted shock wave was studied by experimental and numerical methods for the incident shock wave Mach numbers M 0 close to unity. It is established that vortex shocks appear in the flow behind the diffracted shock wave even when M 0 decreases to 1.04, which is much lower than the threshold Mach number obtained analytically for a 2D automodel case. The time interval from the outflow start to the local supersonic zone formation, as well as the experimentally measured time of appearance of the first vortex shock, increase with decreasing M 0 .