Circumstellar Shells of the Mass-Losing Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars: Limits for the Dust-Driven Winds

We investigated whether the radiation pressure on dust grains alone may account for driving winds in semiregular, irregular and non-variable AGB stars. A simple theoretical model is employed to calculate the limits for the radiatively driven winds and to compare theoretical predictions with observations. Present analysis indicates, that for most of the objects in the studied sample of 67 oxygen-rich and 40 carbon-rich mass-losing AGB stars radiation pressure on dust grains alone is not effective enough to drive the observed circumstellar outflows.