Abstract: To consider the influence of initial ovality on the tension stiffness of helical wound structure, a analytical model was presented based on the elliptical cylinder and helix. A new geometrical relationship was established between them. The axial strain, curvature variation of helix on elliptical cylinder and contact pressure between cylinder and helical layer were considered in the model. A 3D finite element model using ABAQUS was developed to validate the reasonability of the theoretical model. In the theoretical model, initial ovality was parametric analyzed to obtain the effect of initial ovality on the tension stiffness in helical layer. With the increase of initial ovality of pipe, the tension stiffness of helical layer decreases, but the decline is small.