The best failure criterion to use?

[dean.rose]

I am doing a failure analysis and I see that Max Stress is the default Failure Criterion. Is this the best criterion to use or should I select something like Max Strain, Tsai-Wu, Puck or MCT? I do not know the differences. 

[dean.rose · Accepted solution]

Simulation Composite Design gives users the option of eight different failure criteria for composite materials: Max Stress, Max Strain, Tsai-Wu, Tsai-Hill, Hashin, Christensen, Puck, and MCT. The failure criteria are briefly described in section 5.8 of the user’s guide.

In addition to the user’s guide, we have started an informative blog series on failure criteria and their use in evaluating failure in composite structures. Feel free to visit here for more information. The link focuses on the MCT failure criterion, but gives links to posts describing other failure criterion.