Purpose: The goal of this paper is to present application and method of numerical modelling smart materials in vibration control systems. Two methods of vibration control was presented in this work. First one is based on shape memory alloy absorber. Second method use magnetorheological bearing which was placed in revolute join of manipulator mechanism.

Design/methodology/approach: The numerical models of presented mechanical systems were created in APDL language, which is internal ANSYS language. Dynamic characteristics of shape memory alloy absorber were determined by using algorithm which automatically changes absorber’s length. The manipulator mechanism with magnetorheological bearing was modelled by using multibody dynamics method connected with finite element method in ANSYS environment.

Findings: Through this study it was determined shape memory alloy absorber’s length which eliminated specified resonance due to natural frequencies of mechanical system. The dynamic characteristics of mechanical system with magnetorheological bearing were also obtained. Research limitations/implications: The main disadvantage of presented methods is the necessity to calculate parameters for each iteration step. In the case of shape memory alloy absorber this process significantly extends the calculation time.

Practical implications: Presented methods allowed to determine dynamic characteristics of vibration control systems using smart materials and enabled implementation of the method to commercial finite element method environment. Originality/value: This work contains new aspects, which are: determination of shape memory alloy absorber’s length, practical implementation of magnetorheological fluids in vibration control systems.