The influence of cyclic wetting and drying on the fracture toughness of sandstone

• Wetting and drying cycles influencing rock fracture toughness and tensile strength is investigated.
• It still presents a good linear relationship between KIC and σt of sandstone after cyclic wetting and drying.
• The degradation degree of KIC is always larger than that of σt.
• The crack propagation radius decreases with increasing number of wetting–drying cycles.