I agree. I should have used past tense.
The chamber of a diamond anvil cell (the hole in the gasket) is small compared to the culets. I would assume, then, that some of the force on the gasket is "converted" into shear force by the friction between the gasket and the anvils. It is possible to design a structure to shear at a greater pressure than the shear strength, since features like threads can distribute the shear stress.
However, since the coefficient of friction is presumably less than 0.5, the gasket would have to see more compression from the diamonds than net radial stress from the pressure. Am I correct in assuming that since the diamonds have two contact areas with the gasket, both areas contribute frictional force equal to u*Fn?
For inertial confinement, I sense a related-rates problem, but I'm unsure how to set it up. How would one calculate radial strain?
