Planar radiative shock experiments and their comparison to simulations

Recent experiments have obtained radiographic data from shock waves driven at >100km∕s in xenon gas, and Thomson scattering data from similar experiments using argon gas. Presented here is a review of these experiments, followed by an outline of the discrepancies between the data and the results of one-dimensional simulations. Simulations using procedures that work well for similar but nonradiative experiments show inconsistencies between the measured position of the interface of the beryllium and xenon and the calculated position for these experiments. Sources of the discrepancy are explored.