In this research, buckling and vibrational characteristics of a spinning cylindrical moderately thick shell covered with piezoelectric actuator carrying spring-mass systems are performed. This structure rotates about axial direction and the formulations include the Coriolis and centrifugal effects. In addition, various cases of thermal (uniform, linear, and nonlinear) distributions are studied. The modeled cylindrical moderately thick shell covered with piezoelectric actuator, its equations of motion, and boundary conditions are derived by the Hamilton's principle and based on a moderately cylindrical thick shell theory. For the first time in the present study, attached mass-spring systems has been considered in the rotating cylindrical moderately thick shells covered with piezoelectric actuator. The accuracy of the presented model is verified with previous studies. The novelty of the current study is consideration of the applied voltage, rotation, various temperature distributions, and mass-spring systems implemented on proposed model using moderately cylindrical thick shell theory. Generalized differential quadrature method is examined to discretize the model and to approximate the governing equations. In this study, the simply supported conditions have been applied to edges [Formula: see text] and cantilever (clamped–free) boundary conditions has been studied in x = 0, L, respectively. Finally, the effects of the applied voltage, angular velocity, temperature changes, and spring-mass systems on the critical voltage, critical angular speed, critical temperature, and natural frequency of the structure are investigated.