It is well known that the behaviour of shape memory alloys (SMAs) evolves when subjected
to cyclic loading. For instance, during superelastic cycling of an SMA, an increasing
residual strain is observed, mainly during the first cycles. This paper first reports
that (i) this residual strain, believed to be irreversible, can be partially recovered
and (ii) a stress increase is observed after a pause during cyclic loading. Also, it
suggests an explanation of these experimental observations based on the endo and
exothermic phase transformations of the alloy, the heat exchange by convection
around the sample and the Clausius–Clapeyron relation characterizing the SMA.