Cantilevered beams can serve as a basic model for a number of structures used in various fields of industry, such as airplane wings, turbine blades and robotic manipulator arms. In this paper, the active vibration control of a smart cantilevered beam with a piezoelectric patch is studied. Additionally, the optimization of influential parameters of piezoelectric actuator for the purpose of vibration suppression is performed. Initially, the finite element modeling of the cantilevered beam and its piezoelectric patch is described and the implementation of a control system for vibration suppression is introduced. Transient response of the system under impact loading, with and without controller, is simulated using ANSYS. Taguchi’s design of experiments method is used to investigate the effect of five geometric parameters on the vibrational behavior of the system. It is shown that, optimal selection of levels for geometry of the piezoelectric actuator and sensor, can dramatically improve the dynamic response of the smart beam.

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