Influence of relaxation processes on the wave dynamics of shock compression of solids

Nowadays, one obtains information about deformation and fracture strength at strain rates greater than 104 s−1 by analyzing the evolution of plane shock waves in the materials under study. This paper presents a short survey of methods for analyzing shock wave phenomena in relaxing media and recent observations of the evolution of elastoplastic shock compression waves in metals, some of which turned out to be unexpected.