3D composite fabric

1. A fabric of woven yarns or fibers comprising weft fibers and warp fibers disposed in a weave having a base pattern that comprises:

at least twenty-eight weft fibers ( 1 . . . 28 ), disposed in a staggered configuration and forming eight parallel columns (C 1 . . . C 8 ), in which each of the first, third, fifth, and seventh columns has four weft fibers and each of the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth columns has three weft fibers, the columns being separated by a common predetermined space (P), and the weft fibers extending in seven levels (N 1 . . . N 7 ) that extend transversely to the columns;

at least twelve warp fibers (A . . . L) disposed in at least four parallel planes extending transversely to the weft fibers and offset from one another, each of these planes containing at least three parallel warp fibers disposed one above another as follows:

in a first plane, a first warp fiber (A) passes over the first weft fiber ( 1 ) of the first column (C 1 ), passes under the second weft fiber ( 16 ) of the fifth column (C 5 ), and then passes over the first weft fiber ( 1 ) of the first column (C 1 ) of the following pattern; the second and third warp fibers (B, C) extending in said first plane parallel to the first weft fiber (A), being offset on each occasion by one weft fiber in a direction parallel to the columns;

in a second plane, a first warp fiber (D) extends substantially parallel to the levels (N 1 . . . N 7 ) passes over the first weft fiber ( 5 ) of the columns (C 2 , C 4 , C 6 , C 8 ) having three weft fibers, and under the first weft fiber of the columns (C 1 , C 3 , C 5 , C 7 ) having four weft fibers; the second and third warp fibers (E, F) extending parallel to the first warp fiber (D), being offset on each occasion by one weft fiber in a direction parallel to the columns;

in a third plane, the three the warp fibers concerned (G, H, I) extend parallel to the warp fibers (A, B, C) of the first plane, being offset laterally by four columns in a direction parallel to the levels; and finally

in a fourth plane, the three warp fibers (J, K, L) concerned extend parallel to the warp fibers (D, E, F) of the second plane, being offset in a direction parallel to the columns in such a manner that they pass under the weft fibers of the columns (C 2 , C 4 , C 6 , C 8 ) having three weft fibers.

2. A fabric according to claim 1 , having a fiber volume fraction of not less than 57%.

3. A fabric according to claim 1 , wherein the fibers have linking angles (q) less than or equal to 15°.

4. A part obtained from the fabric of claim 1 .