A four-parameter criterion for failure of geomaterials

A three-dimensional failure criterion is proposed. The criterion relies on a maximum of four parameters, that can be interpreted geometrically in principal stress space. It relates in a natural way the Rankine, the Lade, the Matsuoka–Nakai criterion and the von-Mises criterion. Predictions based on this criterion exhibit very good agreement with experimental data for a variety of materials, in particular considering three-dimensional aspects.