
Placement of sensor actuator pair at proper location is very important for active vibration control of structures. A large number of research work by various researchers have been carried out for the optimization of actuators and sensors location, based on different approaches. There are two broad approaches. In one approach the optimization of sensor/actuator location is combined with controller parameters, whereas in the second approach, the optimal locations are obtained independently of the controller parameters. In order to get the best vibration control, the placement of the piezopatches should be in the region of maximum strain location. This paper presents, a controller independent, simple optimal piezoelectric patch placement strategy, on fixed-fixed beams, based on modal strain topological pattern. The modal strain patterns obtained from FE analysis of beams, are utilized to devise a strategy for identifying the locations of piezopatches. The effectiveness of strategy adopted for optimal location is compared with the results obtained from a controller dependent placement methodology employed by previous researchers. It is found that the proposed methodology is in agreement with the work carried out earlier.