A progressive failure analysis for composite laminates is carried out in the paper, based on a failure criteria initiation and a failure evolution law. The maximum strains failure criterion is selected and the material stiffness discount procedure is used as method to investigate the damage evolution. Four cases of specially orthotropic composite laminates with different configurations are analysed: cross-ply, angle-ply, balanced and quasi-isotropic laminates. The multi-layered elements are selected in such a way that the influence of fibre orientations on the type of failure which may occur, can be noticed at a macromechanical scale. The results are presented in terms of comparative representations of progressive failure envelopes, according to the plies failure stages, for each analysed composite laminate.
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