Objective To analyze the effects of excitation source location, detection area length and detection depth on human corneal optical coherence elastography (OCE). Methods The finite element model of human eye with non-uniform distributions of corneal elastic modulus was constructed based on actual distributions of corneal elastic modulus. By simulating the process of shear wave OCE experiment, the finite element simulation results and theoretical results were compared and analyzed. Results When the excitation source locations were different, the shear wave velocity errors of the anterior and posterior corneal stroma were different. The shear wave velocities of the anterior and posterior corneal stroma changed nonlinearly when the detection area lengths were different. For the model with hyperelastic materials, the shear wave velocity changed obviously when the detection depths were different. Conclusions Due to the non-uniform distributions of corneal elastic modulus, the finite element simulation results of shear wave OCE are different at different excitation source locations, different detection area lengths and different detection depths in the anterior and posterior corneal stroma. In OCE experiments, the accuracy of OCE results will be affected if biological tissues with non-uniformity are regarded as homogeneity for measurement.