Abstract: Some flexible structures, like airfoil and satelliteantenna, usually consist of shells and plates. Their working performancesare sensitive to their shape and deformation. However, there are lots ofunpredictable factors, such as temperature, impact, creep and moisture etc.,which could influence the performance of structure. It is impossible anduneconomical to consider all detrimental factors in the design stage. Thus, it isnecessary to control the structure shape by some technologies. This paperpresents a finite element formulation for the numerical simulation of thespatial curved shell structures with piezoelectric actuators, in which thehost shells and piezoelectric patches are related with constraint equationsdirectly. The use of the constraint equations reduces the number of the DOFand improves the computation efficiency. Based on the proposed model, theoptimum structure shape and a perfect voltage distribution can be obtainedby using the linear least squares method (LLSM). Furthermore, thicknessdistribution of the piezoelectric patches is obtained by nonlinearconstraint optimization method (NCOM). Numerical examples are given todemonstrate the validity of the model proposed.