Pressure Stimulated Currents (PSC) in marble samples

Abstract

The electrical behaviour of marble samples from Penteli Mountain was studied while they were subjected to uniaxial stress. The application of consecutive impulsive variations of uniaxial stress to thirty connatural samples produced Pressure Stimulated Currents (PSC). The linear relationship between the recorded PSC and the applied variation rate was investigated. The main results are the following: as far as the samples were under pressure corresponding to their elastic region, the maximum PSC value obeyed a linear law with respect to pressure variation. In the plastic region deviations were observed which were due to variations of Young's modulus. Furthermore, a special burst form of PSC recordings during failure is presented. The latter is emitted when irregular longitudinal splitting is observed during failure.