Abstract: The strain based integrated continuous variables were introduced and used to describe the evolution of damage. The shear nonlinearity of the composite materials was taken into considerations by introducing a nonlinear damage factor in the constitutive equations. The proposed continuum damage model was then implemented into the ABAQUS via VUMAT. The method to determine the parameters was explained in detail. Damage parameters which cannot be obtained by experiment were identified by using the genetic algorithms. The individual fitness was defined by the difference between the experimental and simulated load displacement curves. The parameters inversion method was carried out by the developed MATLAB program to call ABAQUS to perform the finite element analysis. A common composite laminated plate with a hole was selected to identify parameters by using the proposed model. Numerical results reveal the feasibility of the proposed parameter identification method.