This paper presents the development and examination of two fracture criteria proposed for predicting the crack initiation angle in mixed mode ductile fracture based on the theory of continuum damage mechanics. The criteria are deduced respectively from the postulates that (I) a crack propagates at the direction where the ratio of the effective damage equivalent stress & and the effective plastic equivalent stress a', reaches its maximum or Max [C(0)] for which C = d,/d,, (2) a crack propagates at the direction of maximum effective damage equivalent stress 6,,. The criteria are used to predict the angles of crack initiation in mixed mode specimens made of aluminium alloy 2024-T3. The thin aluminium plates embedded with an isolated crack of inclined angle p = 30, 45, 60 and 75" are manufacture to simulate mixed mode fracture. In order to investigate the effects of material anisotropy, the mixed mode specimens are produced both parallel to and, transverse from the rolling direction. A finite element analysis based on the anisotropic model of continuum damage mechanics theory proposed earlier by the authors is performed and the angles of crack initiation of the five mixed mode specimens predicted using the proposed fracture criteria and the strain energy density criterion based on the conventional fracture mechanics. The angles of predicted crack initiation based on the proposed fracture criteria not only agree satisfactorily with those determined expe~mentally but also offer overall better accuracy as compared with those predicted using the conventional fracture mechanics approach. In addition, there is a definite, although not significant, effect of the material anisotropy on the measured crack initiation angles.