Abstract: This paper presents an interpretation of the bifurcation criteria required for shear band inception in a soil mass subjected to bifurcated deformations in a triaxial compression state,and the results are obtained based on the theory of finite deformations. The criteria are applied to analyze a dense sand specimen in the drained state of triaxial compression. The calculated results in uniform deformation mode are also given. Numerical calculations exhibit a good overall agreement with experimental observations for the inception of the localization and the mechanical response before the onset of bifurcation. 