Hi

I am trying to model a chain under low cycle fatigue analysis with crack initiation and propagation. I have come across with the following error message:  ***ERROR: THE PENALTY STIFFNESS HAS TO BE PROVIDED WHEN USING *SURFACE BEHAVIOR,PENALTY.

Please note that I developed a FE model for chain with contact and applied static and cyclic load to see stress concentration, crack initiation and propagation. Please note that I have defined contact property for Tangential Behavior> Penalty>Friction  Coeff 0.3 and Normal Behavior with Hard Contact Default Pressure-Overclosure. The corresponding fracture criterion is defined with VCCT with power mode and damage initiation is defined with MAXPS.

I appreciate anyone's help to point out the potential sources of this error message. Thanks in advance.

Hasan