In this work, a macroscopic non-linear constitutive model accounting for damage, inelastic strain and unilateral behavior is proposed for the 2D plain-woven C/SiC composite. A set of scalar damage variables and a new thermodynamic potential expression are introduced in the framework of continuum damage mechanics. In the deduced constitutive equations, the material's progressive damage deactivation behavior during the compression loading is described by a continuous function, and different deactivation rates under uniaxial and biaxial compression loadings are also considered. In damage evolution laws, the coupling effect among the damage modes and impediment effect of compression stress on the development of shear damage in different plane stress states are taken into account. Besides, the general plasticity theory is applied to describing the evolution of inelastic strain in tension and/or shear stress state. The Tsai-Wu failure criterion is adopted for strength analysis. Additionally, the material model is implemented as a user-defined material subroutine (UMAT) and linked to the ABAQUS finite element software, and its performance is demonstrated through several numerical examples. (C) 2015 Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of CSAA & BUAA.