Research in the field of shock physics and ballistic impact has always
been intimately tied to progress in development of facilities for
accelerating projectiles to high velocity and instrumentation for
recording impact phenomena. The chapters of this book, written by
leading US and European experts, cover a broad range of topics and
address researchers concerned with questions of material behaviour under
impulsive loading and the equations of state of matter, as well as the
design of suitable instrumentation such as gas guns and high-speed
diagnostics. Applications include high-speed impact dynamics, the inner
composition of planets, syntheses of new materials and materials
processing. Among the more technologically oriented applications treated
is the testing of the flight characteristics of aeroballistic models and
the assessment of impacts in the aerospace industry.