Abstract: A large deformation incremental formulation is developed for three-dimensional degenerated plate and shell elements based on updatedLagrangian description in this paper. An improved cylindrical arc-lengthmethod is presented for solving nonlinear finite element equation, in which the sigh of initial load increment in each increment is selected according to current stiffness parameter and initial incremental work. In order to trace the critical points more correctly, a real-time control strategyis suggested. It is proved from numerical comparisons that the method developed in the paper is reliable in predicting nonlinear behavioursof plates and shells.