Abstract
Numerical calculations of the formation, propagation, and effect on surface response of laser-supported detonation waves have been performed with a cylindrically symmetric two-dimensional Eulerian hydrodynamic computer program. These calculations demonstrate the validity and limits of applicability of blast wave models which have been used to describe such phenomena in the past and are consistent with a large body of experimental data. It is concluded that all these data may be understood within the framework of the model presented.