The heat generation in a viscoelastic cylinder which results from thermomechanical coupling behaviors is investigated. Material behaviors and the dissipation function are temperature dependent. The inner surface of the hollow cylinder is subjected to cyclic shear loadings at high frequencies. This assumption leads to a nonlinear differential equation for stress distributions and the dissipation. A closed‐form approximate solution is obtained by using the familiar WKB technique. The temperature distributions resulting from dissipation are solved by means of a finite‐difference method. Numerical examples for a solid propellant are given. It is found that a large temperature rise will occur at the inner surface.