In this paper, geometrically non-linear finite element analyses were performed to study the mechanical behavior of the material system of the envelope of stratospheric airships. The microstructure of the load-bearing plain weave layer was identified and modeled. The Updated Lagrangian formulation was employed to consider the geometric non-linearity as well as the induced structural non-linearity for the fiber tows. The stress-strain behavior was predicted and the effective elastic modulus was calculated by numerical experiments. It was found the non-linear stress-strain curves were largely different from those by linear analysis. And non-linear elastic moduli were much higher than linear elastic moduli. The difference was more distinguishable when the tow waviness ratio was smaller.