Understanding the characteristics of a hydrogen gas jet exiting from a compressed vessel during vessel rupture or venting is crucial for determining safety requirements for distribution and use of hydrogen. Such jets can undergo several flow regimes during venting, from initial supersonic flow, to transonic, to subsonic flow regimes as the pressure in the vessel decreases. A bow shock wave is a characteristic flow structure during the initial stage of the jet development, and this paper focuses on the development of the bow shock wave and the jet structure behind it. The transient behaviour of an impulsively initiated jet is investigated using unsteady, compressible flow simulations. Both the cases of a hydrogen jet exiting into quiescent hydrogen and of a hydrogen jet exiting into air are presented. The gases are considered to be ideal, and the computational domain is axisymmetric. The jet structure, including the shock wave and flow separation due to an adverse pressure gradient at the nozzle is investigated with a focus on the differences between the single- and multi-component flow scenarios. (C) 2009 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.