The results of an experimental study of the dynamic response of aluminum exposed to a high‐fluence low‐energy pulsed electron beam are presented and compared with calculations based on two equations‐of‐state (EOS) models for metals in the melt‐dominated regime. The first model, the widely used classical Mie‐Gru¨neisen EOS, is a simplified scheme in which no thermodynamic distinction is made between solid and liquid phases. The second model ‐ the so‐called GRAY EOS recently developed at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories ‐ is a three‐phase EOS which provides a more detailed and thermodynamically complete description of metals in the melt region. The experimental studies consisted of measuring the dynamic response of 6061 aluminum to a pulsed 185‐keV electron beam for fluences ranging from 15 to 50 cal/cm2, resulting in peak energy depositions of 450–1500 cal/g. The experimental condition produced a mass blow‐off which was dominated by mass in the melt state. The response was characterized by simultaneous (for each electron pulse) measurements of impulse, transmitted stress, blow‐off velocities, and mass loss. The experimental results were compared with the predicted response to the rapid heating calculated with a hydrodynamic computer code (RIP) in conjunction with the two EOS models. The essential result of the comparison was that after the onset of melting the simple Mie‐Gru¨neisen model fails to give reasonable agreement with experiment, whereas the GRAY EOS provides acceptable agreement with the experimental results. In particular, the prediction of GRAY that the thermal pressure in the melt regime can be described by an effective ``average'' temperature‐dependent Gru¨neisen parameter, which at the completion of melting is approximately 40% higher than the solid Gru¨neisen value, is clearly confirmed by the experiments. The results demonstrate the necessity of adequately taking melting into account in modeling material response to pulsed energy deposition.