Shock compression of air is observed in numerous situations ranging from explosions to hypersonic vehicle entry into atmosphere. In an effort to develop continuum-based equation of state for air subjected to shock compression, it is necessary to understand the dynamics of the shock compression process with regards to formation of new chemical species in air at the molecular level. With this in perspective, three different models of air (consisting a mixture of O₂, N₂ and CO₂ gas, with or without H₂O based on presence of humidity) are subjected to shock compression ranging from 0.5 km s⁻¹ to 5.0 km s⁻¹ particle velocities. Thermodynamic quantities are evaluated to plot Rankine Hugoniot planes for the three different air models: dry air at mean sea level (MSL), humid air at MSL and dry air at high altitude level of 36 000 ft above MSL. It is observed that high shock velocities eventually results in dissociation of gaseous molecules and formation of new gaseous species which has been quantified in the manuscript.

在从爆炸到高超音速飞行器进入大气的许多情况下，都可以观察到空气的冲击压缩。为了开发受到冲击压缩的空气的基于连续状态的状态方程，有必要了解关于在分子水平上在空气中形成新化学物种方面，冲击压缩过程的动力学。从这个角度来看，三种不同的空气模型（由O ₂，N ₂和CO ₂气体的混合物组成，根据湿度的存在有无H ₂ O）受到0.5 km s ^-1至0.5 km s的冲击压缩。5.0 km s ^-1粒子速度。评估热力学量以绘制三种不同空气模型的Rankine Hugoniot平面：平均海平面（MSL）上的干燥空气，MSL上的湿空气和MSL之上36 000 ft的高海拔水平上的干燥空气。可以看出，高的冲击速度最终导致气态分子解离并形成了新的气态物质，这已在手稿中进行了量化。