The Tresca criterion was originally developed to be used on yield conditions of metallic materials. In geotechnics, it is often used to simulate the ground material behavior during undrained conditions. This model has some flaws when applied to soil materials, such as no consideration of the effects of hydrostatic pressure acting on the yield surface. Firstly, the assumption that shear stress is unrelated to hydrostatic pressure (or confining pressure) is wrong for general soil behavior. Secondly, the yield stress is the same for compression and tension in this criterion, but soils generally have a much larger compressive strength than tensile strength, sometimes even negligible tensile strength.  

However, performing the total stress analysis for saturated soils under undrained conditions (called analysis) using the Tresca yield criterion still gives appropriate results. The Tresca yield criterion can be used because according to the results, the shear strength of the saturated soil is unrelated to the stress comp1nt of the hydrostatic pressure during undrained loading. In this case, because the maximum shear stress limit represents the undrained shear strength, the decision must be made from the results of the undrained triaxial compression test.