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Understanding a mechanical behaviour of polymer-based nonwoven materials that include large-strain deformation and damage can help to evaluate a response of nonwoven fibrous networks to various loading conditions. Here, a nonwoven felt made by thermal bonding of polypropylene fibres was used as a model system. Its deformation and damage behaviour was analysed by means of experimental assessment of damage evolution based on single-fibre failure and finite-element simulations. Tensile tests of nonwoven fabrics were carried out to characterise their damage behaviour under in-plane mechanical loading. It was found that progressive failure of fibres led to localization of damage initiation and propagation, ultimately resulting in failure of the nonwoven felt. To obtain the criteria that control the onset and propagation of damage in these materials, tensile tests on single fibres, extracted from the felt with …