CST - Self intersecting surface mesh

I am having issues simulating a small structure using the frequency domain solver and tetrahedral mesh. The object is supposed to be a wall of metal spheres arranged in hexagonal closest packing. The wall is meant to be infinite in xy so I have used the unit cell boundary conditions. I am trying to calculate the planewave reflection and transmission through this wall as I add layers in z by using the floquet modes. The default mesh settings were successful until I reached 8 layers and now it is giving me an error when generating the mesh, "Self-intersecting or very close faces are present in the mesh." I have tried:

  1. Mesh Properties/Maximum Cell/Cells per maximum model box edge/100
  2. Add small space between the spheres (ideally they touch)
  3. Curvature Approximation Settings/Normal Tolerance/1
  4. Curvature Approximation Settings/Curved Element/Fixed/4
  5. I have tried to simulate the spheres alone, and the spheres with the background media modeled.

The spheres are stainless steel and have a radius of 25 micron. The frequency is Ka Band 26.5 to 40 GHz.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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