Two regimes of pulsed volume discharge action upon a shock wave

We have experimentally studied two qualitatively different regimes of nanosecond pulsed volume discharge action upon a plane shock wave with M = 2–3 in a channel. If the shock-wave front at the moment of discharge initiation is outside the gap, the mechanism of subsequent action is predominantly thermal. For a shock wave occurring inside the gap at the moment of discharge, the wave and flow behind it are subject to a predominantly shock-wave action whereby the flow in the channel exhibits irreversible transformation with the formation of three new discontinuities.