Hydrodynamic simulations of gaseous Argon shock compression experiments

The lack of published Ar gas shock data motivated an evaluation of the Ar Equation of State (EOS) in gas phase initial density regimes. In particular, these regimes include initial pressures in the range of 13.8 – 34.5 bar (0.025 – 0.056 g/ cm³) and initial shock velocities around 0.2 cm/μs. The objective of the numerical evaluation was to develop a physical understanding of the EOS behavior of shocked and subsequently multiply re-shocked Ar gas through Pagosa numerical simulations utilizing the SESAME equation of state. Pagosa is a Los Alamos National Laboratory 2-D and 3-D Eulerian continuum dynamics code capable of modeling high velocity compressible flow with multiple materials. The approach involved the use of gas gun experiments to evaluate the shock and multiple re-shock behavior of pressurized Ar gas to validate Pagosa simulations and the SESAME EOS. Additionally, the diagnostic capability within the experiments allowed for the EOS to be fully constrained with measured shock velocity, particle velocity and temperature. The simulations demonstrate excellent agreement with the experiments in the shock velocity/particle velocity space, and reasonable comparisons for the ionization temperatures.