In this paper, the common failure criteria of existing soil materials, such as the Mohr-Coulomb criterion, Drucker-Prager criterion, Lade-Duncan criterion, Matsuoka-Nakai criterion andAC-SMP criterion are systematically discussed, and the applicability of these criteria is quantitatively analyzed through the true triaxial test results of loess, so as to provide reference for the accurate selection of specific criteria in engineering practice. The failure criteria are classified from several aspects, such as whether the influence of the intermediate principal stress and the change of spatial moving plane are considered, analyzed and discussed, respectively. According to the true triaxial test results of undisturbed loess, the difference of strength criterion between the three-dimensional failure plane and p-q plane is analyzed, and based on the true triaxial test data of undisturbed loess, the error analysis of each failure criterion is carried out. The results show that the AC-SMP criterion is in good agreement with the test results, and can accurately evaluate the true triaxial test of loess. For different soil materials or different stress states, it is necessary to select appropriate failure criteria. This study shows how to choose the corresponding failure criterion under specific circumstances, so as to better satisfy the theory and practice and provide reference for engineering.
Keywords: failure criterion; soil strength; spatial failure surface.