Abstract: Compression tests were carried out on the unit cell of a typical 2.5D woven composite to examine the compression performance. Meanwhile, a high fidelity meso-scale finite element model which was generated in term of the microscopic characterization of the woven architecture was adopted to investigate the internal deformation and progressive failure process of the unit cell. The results indicate that the 2.5D woven composite exhibits nonlinear mechanical response under both the warp and the weft compression, and the compression modulus and strength along warp direction are higher than those in weft direction; The dominate failure modes of warp compression contain transverse cracking of warp yarns, interface debonding between yarns, crushing of weft yarns and the pure matrix cracking; during the weft compression, the crushing and fracture of weft yarns as well as the pure matrix cracking are observed. Moreover, by comparing the experimental and simulation results, the proposed meso-scale model can well predict the stress-strain responses of the 2.5D woven composite under compression loads, as well as accurately simulate the damage initiation and evolution within the woven architecture.