We have simulated the shock Hugoniot of copper and uranium based on
the results of first principles electronic structure calculations. The
room temperature isotherm has been obtained by evaluating the accurate
ground state total energies at various compressions, and the thermal
and electronic excitation contributions were obtained by adopting
isotropic models using the results obtained by the band structure
calculations. Our calculations ensure smooth consideration of pressure
ionization effects as the relevant core states are treated in the
semi-core form at the ambient pressure. The pressure variation of the
electronic Grüneisen parameter was estimated for copper using the
band structure results, which leads to good agreement of the simulated
shock Hugoniot with the measured shock data. The simulation results
obtained for U are also compared with the experimental data available
in literature and with our own data.