History of creation and schemes of Arzamas-16 explosive laboratory dev
ices for dynamical compressibility measurements up to 2-2.5 TPa are de
scribed, in which a thin, metallic impactor of spherical geometry is a
ccelerated by the explosion products of converging detonation waves. T
he 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 obtaining its parameters for up to 10 TPA, iron compressibility da
ta from underground nuclear explosions of the 70s, and results from th
e modified quantum-statistical model have been used.