A numerical assessment on two-dimensional failure criteria for composite layered structures

This paper is devoted to the most popular failure criteria which are employed in the design and analysis of anisotropic materials/layered plates. In-plane stress (or strain) states are considered and both classical and advanced criteria are illustrated and compared. The advantages and disadvantages of different approaches are discussed through FEM numerical results, by referring to composite material data currently employed. Layer-wise plate models are adopted to provide quasi three-dimensional stress field and to limit the error of modeling. Failure envelopes emphasizing the in-plane shear influence in the case of biaxial traction/compression are proposed. The maximum strain, maximum stress, Tsai–Wu, Tsai–Hill, Hashin and LaRC03 failure criteria are described and compared for various benchmark problems.