Analysis of failure criteria applied to wood

•We examine failure criteria for anisotropic material to apply to wood.•Hill, Tsai-Hill, Tsai-Wu, Hoffman and Norris failure criteria were studied.•Failure envelope curves for two Brazilian wood species were performed.•Comparisons with envelopes curves from experimental results were provided.•Hoffman criterion presented the best strength evaluation for these wood species.

This article presents a study on failure criteria applied to wood, specifically the criteria of Hill, Tsai-Hill, Tsai-Wu, Hoffman and Norris. The theoretical basis of the research involves a development from the conventional failure theory with an application to orthotropic materials. Thus, an analysis of failure criteria was performed, in particular the failure envelope curve achievement from the mechanical properties of two Brazilian wood species, Pinus elliotti and Goupia glabra. A comparison between the obtained envelopes curves with experimental results, which were obtained from biaxial compressive tests, shear tests and off-axis uniaxial tests, was performed to evaluate the analyzed criteria. In general, the Hoffman criterion presented the best result for strength evaluation of these wood species.