<p>Cone valves can meet the needs of large-flow water conveyance systems well, while cavitation inside caused by large flow rate is becoming more and more prominent. The large eddy simulation (LES) approach combined with the Schnerr-Sauer cavitation model was conducted to investigate the cavitating flow in the cone valve. The results show that the cavitation structure inside the cone valve can be divided into relatively stable attached cavitation and shear cavitation. Shear cavitation mostly occurs in quasi-streamwise vortices and elongated circumferential vortices subjected to strong stretching. The vorticity transport equation was utilized to discuss the interaction between shear cavitation and vortex further. The vortex stretching term indicates that the circumferential vortex has a tendency to break along the axis and becomes more three-dimensional when it moves downstream. Shear cavitation will be formed in the broken vortex. The cavity growth leads to a rapid increase in the vortex dilatation term. The baroclinic term has a maximum value when the shear cavitation collapses. Evolution of shear cavitation could increase turbulent pulsation, with the generation of strong turbulent kinetic energy. Turbulence and shear cavitation interact and form a complex flow field structure. In addition, it is found that the second-order conductance of cavitation volume to time is mainly responsible for the pressure pulsation inside, while the geometric parameters of the cone valve on pressure pulsation cannot be ignored as well. Therefore, an improved one-dimensional model is proposed, which verifies the influence of the evolution process of shear cavitation and geometric parameters of the cone valve. The results are helpful in understanding the hydrodynamic and cavitation characteristics inside the cone valve.</p>