The use of iron-based shape memory alloy (Fe-SMA) demonstrates effectiveness in repairing cracked steel structures for lifetime extension. This study presents an activation test of memory-steel (i.e., Fe-SMA) patches adhesively bonded on cracked steel plates to investigate the recovery stress behavior. Fe-SMA strips with different lengths ranging from 100 to 500 mm are bonded over cracks using a ductile nonlinear adhesive. The middle part of the Fe-SMA strip (over the crack) is activated using the electrical resistive heating technique. The Fe-SMA is heated to a target temperature of 180 ℃ and subsequently cools down to the room temperature. The temperatures of the anchorage parts are maintained below the adhesive glass transition temperature during the activation process. After activation, final Fe-SMA prestresses ranging from approximately 154 to 249 MPa are successfully generated and sustained across all the specimens, resulting in average compressive strains of approximately -40 to -120 µm/m in the steel plates.