Effect of Ionic Disorder on the Principal Shock Hugoniot

Abstract

The effect of ionic disorder on the principal Hugoniot is investigated using Multiple Scattering Theory to very high pressure (Gbar). Calculations using molecular dynamics to simulate ionic disorder, are compared to those with a fixed crystal lattice, for both carbon and aluminum. For the range of conditions considered here, we find that ionic disorder is most important at the onset of shell ionization and that at higher pressures, the subtle effect of the ionic environment is overwhelmed by the larger number of ionized electrons with higher thermal energies.