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A numerical modeling method to reproduce the structures of needle-punched nonwoven geotextile based on the actual manufacturing process (web formation and web bonding) was developed. The geotextile model was built based on the statistical characteristics of the computed tomography (CT) observations, physical and mechanical properties of fibers, and physical parameters of the geotextile. A combination of the finite element model and pore network model method was proposed to obtain the pore size characteristics. The appearance and pore size characteristics before and under uniaxial tensile strains were investigated. It is shown that the method can simulate the geotextile manufacturing process satisfactorily. The pore size distribution (PSD) curves obtained from the model show good agreement with the CT-based results. Moreover, the method can reasonably simulate the tensile behaviors of geotextile under uniaxial tensile strain. The specimen necking phenomenon during the uniaxial tensile test was well reproduced. The PSD curves moved towards the direction of larger pore size with increasing uniaxial strain, and characteristic pore sizes (O 98 , O 95 , O 50 , O 30 , O 10) all show a relatively steady increasing trend. • The structures of nonwoven geotextiles are reproduced by numerical simulation of the actual preparing process (web formation and web bonding). • A FEM-PNM method was proposed to obtain the pore size characteristics of the geotextile model. • The PSD curves obtained from the numerical model show a good agreement with the experimental results based on CT. • The specimen necking phenomenon during the uniaxial tensile test was well reproduced. • The PSD curves moved towards the direction of larger pore size with uniaxial strain, and characteristic pore sizes all show an increasing trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]