Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
We present a comparative study of two different chemically-sustained shock waves. One shows behavior expected from the Zel'dovich, von Neumann, and Doering (ZND) continuum theory of planar detonations. The other exhibits the complexity of a split shock wave resulting from the presence of a polymorphic phase transition. This comparative study demonstrates the importance of carefully considering the high-pressure characteristics of the model in developing potentials for simulating detonations. This comparative study also raises the fascinating possibility of a first-order phase transition accompanying a condensed-phase detonation.