This book reviews the science and technology necessary to understand, predict, and simulate the phenomena associated with intense dynamic loading of matter. The book begins with background information on shock wave phenomena in materials and how they are measured. This includes materials with strength, materials undergoing dynamic phase transformations, and material fracturing. The authors then cover the phenomena associated with detonations, where the chemical energy release of an explosive is an integral part of the hydrodynamics and describe the formation and application of the semi-empirical equation of state. They develop the numerical techniques for doing realistic computer simulations of complicated dynamical processes associated with impacts. The book closes with reviews simulations, compared with experiments, for a variety of dynamic loading events, including laser and electron beam interactions with metals, high explosive loading of iron, and impacts of cometary dust on the Vega space probe as it crossed the tail of Hailey's comet.
