The computational analysis of plate impact experiments on dry sand utilizing the Mie- Grüneisen (MG) equation of state and the P-α compaction model were investigated in this study. A number of two dimensional axial symmetric computations were performed by using the hydrocode AUTODYN. The computational results were compared with the particle velocity on the back surface of the rear plate measured by the VISAR system and the first shock-wave arrival times detected by piezoelectric pins in the samples respectively. It was found that the P-α compaction model was more accurately reproduce the experimental data than the MG EOS.