In this paper geometrically nonlinear analysis of piezolaminated smart composite platesand shells is presented. The degenerated shell element is formulated using total Lagrangianand higher-order shear deformation theory (HOST). von Karman hypothesis isused in the formulation and the finite element equations are derived using energyprinciples. The electromechanical coupling linear constitutive model given byTierstein is applied for the formulation. Nonlinear equations are solved adopting theNewton–Raphson iterative technique. The model has been validated by comparingthe nonlinear deflections of a bimorph beam with the results in the literature.Numerical studies on the smart plates and shell structures have been presentedusing different boundary and loading conditions. Through the comparison ofresults between the first-order shear deformation theory (FOST) and the HOSTmodels, the performance and accuracy of the HOST model has been demonstrated.