Axisymmetric wave propagation in a solid viscoelastic sphere

Abstract Two problems of linear wave propagation in a viscoelastic solid sphere are solved. The waves are generated by two types of impact on the surface of the sphere. The deformation has symmetry with respect to an axis through the center of the sphere. The solution is based on a superposition principle which reduces the general solution to a static elastic solution, an elastic solution of an eigenvalue problem and an integral equation of the Volterra type involving time only. The solutions are given in double infinite series involving spherical Bessel functions, Legendre polynomials and Legendre functions of the first kind and order one.