Preform and Method for Reinforcing Woven Fiber Nodes

A method of forming a reinforced composite structure comprising the following steps:

• fabricating a first reinforced preform comprising a plurality of commonly woven fabric elements edgewise joined and radially extending from a common node wherein at least one reinforcing fiber from each of the plurality of elements is woven through the node and into at least one other of the plurality of elements;
• fabricating a second preform comprising at least one secondary element;
• positioning at least a portion of the secondary element adjacent to at least a portion of the first woven preform to form a preform assembly;
• and
• processing the preform assembly to form a composite structure.

A composite structure comprising:

• a plurality of curvilinear preforms, each curvilinear preform comprising a plurality of commonly woven fabric elements edgewise joined and radially extending from a common node, at least one reinforcing fiber from each of the plurality of elements woven through the node and into at least one other of the plurality of elements
• wherein each of the plurality of curvilinear preforms includes a longitudinal axis, the axes of the plurality of preforms aligned generally parallel in a grid-like pattern;
• and
• a first end of a first woven fabric element of a first of the plurality of preforms overlaps and abuts at least a second woven fabric element of a second of the plurality of curvilinear preforms.