Due to the evolving nature of the engineering analysis and simulation market this publication no longer represents current best practice and has been archived. The document may be of historical interest and is therefore still available for purchase.

A new definition of shape parameters for a quadrilateral is presented. It is shown that the shape parameters can be expressed in terms of simple polynomial coefficients with a clear physical meaning. It is also shown how the shape parameters can be evaluated from the Jacobian matrix. Element warpage and convexity are also covered.