Hello Helen,
Warnings about Highly Distorted elements are issued so the user knows a problem is developing, but the solver can continue. This is what is happening on the HPC with the fine mesh.
Errors caused by (even more) Highly Distorted elements are issued when the solver can no longer continue because the element shape is no longer valid for computation. The user must take corrective action to get the solution to run to the full load. This is what is happening on the PC with the coarse mesh.
Regards,
Peter