2.7. Error Recovery

ERROR TOLERANCE = {ON|OFF} (ON)

This command controls how aggressively Sierra/SM will attempt to recover from a non-physical or ill-defined condition and continue with the analysis.

Under the default setting of ON, the code may invoke methods to keep the analysis moving forward despite the presence of non-physical or ambiguous conditions. For example, if the contact algorithm determines that a facet is potentially in two contact surfaces (an ambiguous condition), Sierra/SM will assign the facet to one of the surfaces and continue with the analysis. A second example pertains to SPH particles: if the deformation gradient of an SPH particle is inverted, the particle will be ignored rather than causing the analysis to terminate. Non-physical and ambiguous conditions will generally result in a warning message being printed.

If ERROR TOLERANCE is OFF, Sierra/SM will terminate an analysis in the presence of ambiguous or non-physical conditions. This may make it easier for an analyst to address non-fatal but potentially problematic issues.