Transverse vibrations of viscoelastic shallow shells

Abstract A method for the time history of motion of shallow shells of viscoelastic material under arbitrary time-dependent transverse load is presented. The method is based upon the concept of iso-amplitude contour lines on the surface of the shell. It is shown that the time behavior can be found by using the frequency of free vibration of the associated elastic shallow shell. As an illustration of the technique, the problem of a shallow dome upon an elliptic base is discussed, all details of which are explained by graphs.