Explosive laboratory devices for shock wave compression studies

History of creation and schemes of Arzamas-16 explosive laboratory devices for dynamical compressibility measurements at pressures up to 2–2.5 TPa are described, in which a thin, metallic impactor of spherical geometry is accelerated by the explosion products in converging detonation waves. The iron shock adiabat obtained with these devices over the period from 1948 to the early 60s and used as a dynamical standard in megabar and terapascal compressibility studies of other substances, is presented. In deriving its parameters for up to 10 TPa, iron compressibility data from underground nuclear explosions of the 70s, and calculated results from the modified quantum-statistical model have been employed.