Production of a fibrous structure with variable thickness by 3D weaving

A method of making a fiber structure by multilayer three-dimensional weaving, comprising decreasing a thickness of the fiber structure in a direction perpendicular to warp and weft directions during a transition in the warp direction from a second portion of the fiber structure to a first portion of the fiber structure having a thickness that is smaller than the thickness of the second portion,

• said thickness decreasing including decreasing a number of layers of warp yarns and increasing a number of warp planes by sharing the warp yarns of at least one warp plane of the second portion between at least two different warp planes of the first portion, said at least two different warp planes lying one behind the other in the weft direction, while conserving the same number of woven warp yarns along the warp direction.

A method of making a fiber structure by multilayer three-dimensional weaving, comprising increasing a thickness of the fiber structure in a direction perpendicular to warp and weft directions during a transition in the weft direction from a first portion of the fiber structure to a second portion of the fiber structure having a thickness that is greater than the thickness of the first portion,

• said thickness increasing including increasing a number of layers of weft yarns and decreasing a number of weft planes by constituting at least one weft plane in the second portion with weft yarns taken from at least two different weft planes in the first portion, said at least two different weft planes lying one behind the other in the warp direction, while conserving the same number of woven weft yarns along the weft direction.

A method of making a fiber structure by multilayer three-dimensional weaving, comprising decreasing a thickness of the fiber structure in a direction perpendicular to the warp and weft directions during a transition in the weft direction from a second portion of the fiber structure to a first portion of the fiber structure having a thickness that is smaller than the thickness of the second portion,

• said thickness decreasing including decreasing a number of layers of weft yarns yarns and increasing a number of weft planes by sharing the weft yarns of at least one weft plane in the second portion between at least two different weft planes of the first portion, said at least two different weft planes lying one behind the other in the warp direction, while conserving the same number of woven weft yarns along the weft direction.