Semianalytical finite element formulation is presented for the analysis of active controlled shells of revolution taking into account a steady state temperature field over the piezoelectric and elastic structural continuum. First order shear deformation theory is used to model the elastic shells of revolution. The active control system comprises of spatially distributed cosine shaped convolving type sensors and actuators and the active control strategy is based on the negative velocity feedback. The influence of the steady state temperature on the active damping ratio is studied through numerical simulations with cylindrical shells bonded with piezoceramic layer. Results are presented pertaining to the response of the piezothermoelastic cylindrical shell for two different length to radius ratios subjected to clamped-clamped and clamped-free boundary conditions. In general it is found that there exists thermal deflection in dynamic oscillation and the thermal deflection is not the same for different axial modes. Based on the characteristic of thermal deflection an attempt is made to comment on the stability of the system. It is found that it remains unchanged under the influence of a steady state temperature field. Results of the numerical studies are presented related to the effect of location of collocated sensor-actuator on the stability of piezoelectric laminated cylindrical shells. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.