The paper presents effective numerical modelling of multi-layered plates with orthotropic properties. The method called the FEM23 is employed to construct the numerical model. The approach enables a full 3D analysis to be performed while using a 2D finite element mesh. The numerical model for a multi-layered plate is constructed by an assembling procedure, where each layer with orthotropic properties is added to the global numerical model. The paper demonstrates that the FEM23 method is very flexible in defining the multilayered plate, where the thickness of each layer as well as its mechanical orthotropic properties can be defined independently. Several examples of three-layered or nine-layered plates are analyzed in this paper. The results obtained by the FEM23 method coincide with the ones taken from the published papers or calculated with the standard 3D FEM approach. The orthotropic version of the FEM23 can be quite easily applied for other kinds of problems including thermo-mechanics, free vibrations, buckling analysis, or delamination.
Keywords: FEM23; multi-layered plate; postprocessing; three-dimensional modelling.