In the paper, a solution to the problem of elastic deformation of thin-walled shell structures with complex shapes within the theory of geometrically non-linear shells has been presented. It is a modification of the Newton-Raphson method. In a variational formulation, the problem is based on a Lagrange’s functional for increments of displacements. The method has been applied to investigations of a harmonic drive, in particular to analysis of the stress state in the flexspline with a variable curvature as well as bearings of the generator. For verification of the obtained results, a more adequate FEM model calculated by ANSYS has been used.