Recently, the actuator worked by the driving recovery-force of the thermo elastic martensitic transformation of shape memory alloys(SMA) has been studied. This paper presents a study on the fatigue life of shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators undergoing thermally induced martensitic phase transformation under various stress levels. shape memory recoverable stress and strain of Ti-44.5at.%Ni-8at.%Cu alloys were by means of constant temperature tensile tests. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was employed in order to investigate the transformation characteristics of the alloy before the tests. the results were summarized as follows. The martensite inducing stress incerased with the increasing of the Cu-contents. The fatigue life decreased with the increasing of the test load and the Cu-content. The data acquired will be very useful during the design process of an SMA NiTiCu element as a functional part of an actuator.