Fibrous media are ubiquitous in natural and engineered systems, due to their versatility, flexibility and functionality. Nonwovens (i.e. entangled fibrous networks), and especially natural fibre -based materials such as paper or flax mats, are heavily used for a variety of applications, and could be largely developed as a sustainable alternative for fossil-based plastics. The first limitation of their widespread use is their response to humidity, wetting or drying, which is unavoidable in many applications, and is a key step of their manufacturing processes.

The ElCapiTex project aims at characterizing and modelling the specific behaviour and properties of wet non-woven textiles and of their manufacturing processes.