The von Mises model is often used to define the behavior of ductile materials based on the principle that yielding occurs when the shear stress reaches the threshold value. This model can be applied to truss, embedded truss and pipe elements as well as geotechnical elements. It can also be applied when simulating anchors, nails or steel pipe piles made from steel.

The von Mises model has the same limitation as the Tresca model when applied to soil materials; it does not consider of the effects of hydrostatic pressure and the yield stress is the same for compression and tension. Like the Tresca criterion, the undrained strength of saturated soil can be appropriately presented using the von Mises yield criterion. This model is useful because it does not have the mathematical difficulty or analysis complexity caused by the hexagonal corners of the curved surface on the Tresca criterion.