Abstract The forming quality of the composite shell is closely related to the tension system. Nowadays, although there are many studies on the tension system, most of them take the thin-walled composite material forming process derived by the deflection equation as the research object, which is relatively simple. Therefore, due to the limitation of the traditional two-step forming process of winding and curing or the in-situ forming process of winding followed by curing, the product forming efficiency and quality is not high. Moreover, the tension system establishment method based on the existing forming process cannot reflect the variation trend of the temperature field and the coupling law of the temperature-curing degree field during winding. It is difficult to reflect the influence of thermal parameters on winding tension in real-time, resulting in the mismatch between the actual winding tension and the established tension system. Therefore, this paper adopts the heated-mandrel winding process based on winding with curing to establish a tension system model to solve the above problems. The original tension calculation equations are re-derived to establish a winding tension system that considers the variation of stress caused by the temperature field. Finally, the hoop residual stress distribution is simulated to verify the applicability of the established tension system based on the heated-mandrel winding process.