Abstract: So far the failure criterion of damaged composite laminates is consistently one of the important research projects for the investigations of me- chanics of composite materials. Because of the complexity of damage failure mechanisms of composite laminates, the failure criterion applied to all forms of defects, particularly impact damage has still not been found. In the present paper authors attempt to apply continuum damage mechanics to solving this puzzle.Based on the energy identification hypothesis authors propose that the damage strain energy release rate tensor can be used to describe the mechanical state of damaged composite laminates. And the experimental study of two notched carbon/epoxy laminates （（0/±15） and （0/±75）） shows that the evolution law of the damage strain energy release rate can be fitted in with an exponential function. Therefore, the damage strain energy release rate failure criterion applicable to composite laminates under unidirectional loading is obtained.By means of some destructive and nondestructive inspections, such as the acoustic emission, out-of-plane morie inteferometry, load-displacement curve and deply technique, the experimental study on damage failure mechanisms were carried out to verify and reveal the physical meaning of this criterion and the reasonableness of some assumptions in this criterion theory.