Sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, this conference was held in Niagara Falls on July 6–9, 1981. This book includes material on the following topics: instrumentation and diagnostics, shock tube facilities and techniques, gas dynamic experiments, heat transfer and real gas effects, boundary layers, shock structure, shock propagation, laser and spectral optical studies, chem and kinetics, relaxation and excitation, ionization, dusty gases, two-phase flow and condensation, shock waves in the environment and energy, and energy-related processes. The book contains a total of 98 papers by well-known specialists.