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I have a 3D unit cell which is the same when looking at it from either the x- or y-axis. I am looking at 2-phase flow using the phase field method through the unit cell, and have utilized symmetry as much as possible. However, due to some areas of high curvature in the unit cell and my computing power limits, I have some inverted mesh elements along a few of my boundaries. I believe that these are causing my solution to diverge and I wish to avoid them.

The peculiar issue is that the geometry causing these inverted elements is the same along both the x- and y-axis, as I mentioned before. However, there are much more inverted elements along the x-axis oriented subdomain than the y-axis subdomain. Could this somehow be a result of how the advancing front mesh generator works? If so, could I control the direction over which it meshes to avoid these inverted elements? I have read the documentation regarding avoiding inverted elements, however I can't refine these high curvature areas because this would then cause problems with the phase field method, which needs elements of approximately the same size to work properly.

Thanks for any insights!

-Caleb