Understanding the failure mechanisms of rocks that are exposed to different water contents is important for rock stability in rock engineering applications, and the quantitative analysis of rock behavior is necessary for predicting and preventing the occurrence of rock failure due to water effects. Mechanical tests using real-time acoustic emission (AE) technology were carried out to reveal the damage evolution in sandstone rocks in a dried state, natural state, and saturated state, which includes a quantitative analysis of AE characteristics and cracking properties. The testing results indicate that with the growth of water content, sandstone rocks show a decreasing trend in strength and tend to experience gentle damage with relatively fewer fractures. The crack morphology of the main fracture surfaces is quantitatively described, including a fractal dimension calculation and cracking length measurements. As the water content rises, when rock failure occurs, a higher AE b-value can be obtained, revealing an increasing proportion of large-scale cracks. The fractal dimension of the acoustic emission hit rate shows that the evolution of rock damage and deformation has self-similarity, that is, the transformation from order to disorder to order, and it is affected by different water contents. The AE waveforms of the sandstone have two dominant frequency bands (0~75 kHz and 75~150 kHz) no matter which water-bearing state they are in. The increase in rock water content has resulted in the decline of AE waveforms located in the range of 200–300 kHz, whereas the rise of AE waveforms is located in the range of 0–50 kHz. The findings of this study deepen our understanding of the mechanism behind rock failure and provide a meaningful reference for disaster assessment and control.

The load versus load point displacement (LPD) curve is significant for the nonlinearity corrections for the mode‐I fracture toughness of chevron bend (CB) specimens. The testing fixture plays a crucial role in measuring load versus LPD curves. To better measure the LPDs of CB specimens, we developed an improved fixture system consisting of an understructure and a yoke based on the traditional saddle arrangement fixture suggested by ISRM. With the aid of the improved fixture, continuous synchronized LPDs and CMODs are measured, and nonlinearity corrections are conducted. After nonlinearity corrections, the data of mode‐I fracture toughness become more comparable and present a better regularity among different specimen diameters and variant rock types. Repeated tests verify that the improved fixture has the advantages of higher stability and more convenient installation, removal, and adjustment, which can enhance the testing robustness and efficiency.