In order to rehabilitate the performance of deteriorated steel structures, the active prestressed reinforcement employing new intelligent material, Iron-based shape memory alloy (Fe-SMA), has received extensive attentions. To reveal the mechanical properties of bolted joints between Fe-SMA and steel plates, a parametric method to establish finite element model via secondary development of ABAQUS based on Python scripts was proposed. It greatly reduces modelling costs and improves modeling efficiency. Besides, the proposed numerical models were verified against the experimental results by failure mode, final deformation, load-displacement characteristics, ultimate load-bearing capacity and initial stiffness. It is demonstrated that the numerical simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results. What is more, a parametric study on thickness and geometry of steel plates, as well as the end distance, edge distance and thickness of Fe-SMA plate was conducted to verify the applicability of current leading specifications for steel structures. It is evident from the results that the thickness of Fe-SMA should be controlled to prevent failure of parent steel structures. Furthermore, similar to steel plates, the thickness of Fe-SMA plate can be considered linear and the failure of bolt can be avoided, as described in Chinese code GB 50017–2017 and Eurocode 3 Part 1–8. However, the minimum allowable edge distance in Chinese code GB 50017–2017 and the ultimate load-bearing capacity calculated by Eurocode 3 Part 1–8 is conservative for bolted joints between Fe-SMA and steel plates. Hence, it is urgent to formulate design specifications for this kind of bolted joints for the scientific and economical application of Fe-SMA in structural active reinforcements.