Absolute penetration tolerance (HCRIT)

This option is only available for the augmented Lagrangian surface behavior (see Figure 1), and you can set this parameter through the GUI (see Figure 2). It will help with some convergence issues in some cases. The absolute penetration tolerance is called HCRIT in the ABAQUS documentation keyword “*CONTACT PAIR”.

When a point of slave surface must penetrate at a certain distance to the master surface, this parameter must be equal to that distance.

Figure 1: Augmented Lagrangian behavior

Figure 2: set the HCRIT through GUI