Pipe bends are very important and critical components in any piping system, particularly in thermal power plants. To avoid failure of piping system, utmost care is taken to design the pipe bends under various loads. Many analytical and numerical studies on pipe bends assume the cross section to be circular, but in practice the cross section exists with ovality and thinning/thickening.In this paper, the effect of ovality and thinning on the induced hoop stress is investigated using finite element method when the pipe bend is subjected to internal pressure. The cross section, to include ovality and thinning, is assumed to be elliptic as prescribed by ASME.The ovality and thinning were varied from 0 to 20 percent with the increment of 5 percent. The pipe bend geometry chosen for the paper is r/t=5, 10, 15 and 20 and R/r= 2 and 3. The internal pressure was varied up to 12 MPa for each model in steps of 2 MPa. It is found that the ovality and thinning have significant effect on stresses induced and hence any numerical analysis must include the effect of these shape imperfections for the proper design of pipe bends. © Research India Publications.