Abstract: The purpose of this investigation is to establish a modeling strategy for accurately predicting the buckling and the progressive failure in the post-buckling of cylindrical composite shells. Finite element method was employed and Hashin failure criterion was used. A user material subroutine based on the failure criterion was developed and inserted into the commercial finite element software ABAQUS. Cylindrical composite shell panels subjected to a transversely concentrated load at its centre were analyzed. Two straight edges of the panel were elastic support and two curved edges were free. Finite element results were compared with the existing experimental data in the literature to investigate the effect of the elastic support conditions and the stress concentration caused by the concentrated load. A reasonable criterion for simulating the correct elastic boundary condition was proposed. It is found that if the elastic support and the stress concentration at the small area of the concentrated load point are considered in the modeling, the simulated results are fairly close to the experimental data and are much better than the existing predictions. Therefore, the rationality of the established modeling strategy is validated.