To find the optimum combination of materials and thicknesses to provide a tough, damage resistant multi-layer system with numerical methods (XFEM), without the need of exhaustive experiments which are difficult or costly to model. Materials and methods: Extended Finite element method (XFEM) is used to assess the critical loads for the onset of damage modes such as radial cracks, cone cracks and plastic deformation in dental prostheses, consisting of a spherical indenter contacting a brittle outerlayer (porcelain)/metal (Pd/Co/Au alloys) -core/dentinsubstrate trilayer system in concentrated loading. XFEM provides flexibility in modeling, as crack need not be aligned with the element edges. XFEM in particular not only has the ability to successfully solve crack propagation problems but also can model crack initiation process. The overall thickness of metal (dm) and porcelain (dp) layers is assumed to be 1.5 mm (dm+dp).

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