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In previous research, a series of a thickness-tapered cruciform specimen configurations have been used to determine the biaxial (two-dimensional, in-plane) and triaxial (three-dimensional) strength of several carbon/epoxy and glass/vinyl-ester laminate configurations. Refinements to the cruciform geometry have been shown capable of producing acceptable results for cross-ply laminate configurations. However, the presence of a biaxial strengthening effect in quasi-isotropic, laminates have brought into question whether the cruciform geometry could be used to successfully generate two-dimensional strength envelopes. In the present study, a two-dimensional failure envelope for a IM7/977-2 carbon/epoxy laminate was developed, using a triaxial test facility. Results are promising as they indicated that failure in the majority of the IM7/977-2 specimens occurred in the gage section. This leads the authors to believe that maximum biaxial stress states were correctly generated within the test specimen. In addition to the data presented, multi-continuum theory (MCT) was used to predict and analyze the onset of damage and ultimate failure of a biaxially loaded IM7/977-2 laminate. Damage in a composite material typically begins at the constituent level and may, in fact, be limited to only one constituent in some situations. An accurate prediction of constituent failure at sampling points throughout the laminate provides a genesis for progressively analyzing damage propagation in a composite specimen allowing identification of intermediate damage modes. A constituent-based, quadratic, stress-interactive, failure criterion was used to take advantage of the micro-scale information provided by MCT. There was reasonable correlation between analytically and experimentally developed IM7/977-2 2D failure envelope which leads us to believe that the thickness-tapered cruciform specimen can be used to determine the biaxial strength of quasi-isotropic laminates., Prepared in collaboration with the Mechanical Engineering Program, Alfred University, Alfred, NY and CSA Engineering, Inc., Albuquerque, NM. Published in Composite Structures, v75, p60-66, 2006. The original document contains color images.