A moving bounds strategy for the parameterization of geometric design variables in the simultaneous shape optimization of curved shell structures and openings

•Simultaneous shape optimization of the curved surface and attached holes is modeled.•A moving bounds strategy is carried out to determine the parametric reference domain.•An arc-length rule is proposed to calculate allowable bounds of the reference domain.•Design variables related to the hole shape are normalized to obtain fixed bounds.

A moving bounds strategy is proposed to implement simultaneous shape optimization of curved shell structures and openings. Design variables related to the hole shape are constrained in a planar reference domain by the moving bounds whose values are adaptively updated as functions of design variables related to the surface by an arc-length rule. It is shown that this strategy is essential not only to ensure the geometric consistence in the simultaneous design process but also to hold the shape-preserving of the mapped FE mesh from reference domains. Numerical results are presented to validate the proposed method.