The use of stress gauges for characterization of the shock behaviour of porous materials is an important tool for the description of non‐equilibrium response in shock compression. The present paper demonstrates that gauge measurements can be employed for both dry and hydrated sand. In a previous publication [Resnyansky, A. D.,et al.J. Appl. Phys. 2003], a single‐phase rate sensitive model was employed to describe tests for dry sand. In the present paper a two‐phase model has been developed, which allows us to describe the dry and hydrated sand with a uniform approach. Specification of the material is achieved by involving air or water as a matrix material in a two‐phase representation of the sand. The effect of the gauge embedding on the stress profiles is analysed numerically to understand features of the test records. Comparison of experimental and numerical results demonstrates a good agreement. © 2004 American Institute of Physics