As one of the most important surface strengthening method, shot peening is widely used to improve the fatigue and stress corrosion crack resistance of components by introducing the refined microstructure and compressive residual stress in the surface layer. However, the mechanical properties of this thin layer are different from the base metal and are difficult to be characterized by conventional techniques. In this work, a micro uniaxial tensile tester equipped with in-situ X-ray stress analyzer was employed to make it achievable on a nickel-aluminum bronze with shot peening treatment. According to the equivalent stress-strain relationship based on Von Mises stress criterion, the Young's modulus and yield strength of the peened layer were calculated. The results showed that the Young's modulus was the same as the bulk material, and the yield strength corresponding to the permanent plastic strain of 0.2% was increased by 21% after SP. But the fractographic analysis showed that the fracture feature of the surface layer was likely to transform from the dimple to the cleavage, indicating the improved strength might be attained at the expense of ductility. The monotonic and cyclic loading were also performed via the same combined setup. In addition, the specific relaxation behavior of compressive residual stress was quantified by linear logarithm relationship between residual stress and cycle numbers. It was found that the compressive residual stress mainly relaxed in the first few cycles, and then reached steady state with further cycles. The relaxation rate and the stable value were chiefly depended on the stress amplitude and number of cycles. The retained residual stress kept in compressive under all given applied stress levels, suggesting that the shot peening could introduce a more stable surface layer of compressive residual stress other than the elevated strength of nickel-aluminum bronze alloy. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.