The “Film boiling” Chemical Vapor Infiltration (CVI) process is a rapid densification one developed in particular for theelaboration of carbon/carbon composite materials. In order to optimize this new thermal gradient process, we have carried outseveral studies, on one hand, about the nature of the complex chemical reactions in a confined medium, and on the other hand,relative to the role of heat and mass transfers inside the preform. We show in this study that the introduction of a permeablesheath around the preform leads to hybrid liquid/gas CVI process which presents the advantages of very high densificationrates associated with a moderate input energy.