Shape memory alloys (SMA) are often used in smart structures as active components. Their ability to provide large recovery forces and displacements has been useful in many applications, including devices for artificial muscles, active structural acoustic control, and shape control. Based on the 3-dimensional SMA constitutive equation in this paper, the radial displacement control of externally pressurized circular and semicircular composite cylinders under external pressure with a thin SMA layer bonded on its inner surface or inserted between composite layers in investigated using 3-dimensional finite element analysis. Upon actuation through resistive heating, SMAs start to transform from martensitic into austenitic state, simultaneously recover the prestrain, and thus cause the composite cylinders to go back to their original shapes of the cylinder cross-sections.