## 7 Conclusions  
Through uniaxial compression tests conducted on sandstone under different temperatures and soaking times (with varying moisture content), the damage characteristics and failure mechanisms of sandstone were investigated. The following conclusions were drawn. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Numbering**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Temperature/\({}^{\circ}\)C**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Soaking**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**RA/ms\(\cdot\)V\({}^{-1}\)**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Numbering**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Temperature/\({}^{\circ}\)C**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Soaking**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**TA/ms\(\cdot\)V\({}^{-1}\)**} \\  & & & & & & & & \\ \hline H-25-0.5 & 25 & 0.5 & 78.42 & H-85-0.5 & 85 & 0.5 & 61.01 \\ H-25-1 & 25 & 1 & 42.01 & H-85-1 & 85 & 1 & 63.54 \\ H-25-3 & 25 & 3 & 72.02 & H-85-3 & 85 & 3 & 45.52 \\ H-55-0.5 & 55 & 0.5 & 65.32 & H-95-0.5 & 95 & 0.5 & 82.24 \\ H-55-1 & 55 & 1 & 45.44 & H-95-1 & 95 & 1 & 81.71 \\ H-55-3 & 55 & 3 & 75.81 & H-95-3 & 95 & 3 & 70.62 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Maximum RA Values of Sandstone under Different Temperatures and Soaking Times. (1) Different temperatures and soaking durations have an impact on the thermal expansion effect of sandstone. Specifically, under a soaking duration of 3 h, sandstone at 55 \({}^{\circ}\)C exhibits the highest moisture content, yet its thermal expansion effect is relatively insignificant. In contrast, at 85 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 95 \({}^{\circ}\)C, the moisture content decreases, resulting in an enhanced water absorption and softening effect. (2) Under the influence of different soaking durations and temperatures, the acoustic emission of sandstone undergoes a period of calm, a surge, and a decay. At different temperatures, for soaking durations of 0.5 h and 1 h, the maximum ringing, energy, and cumulative ringing count of acoustic emission from sandstone show a trend of first increasing, then decreasing, and finally increasing again. However, for a soaking duration of 3 h, the maximum ringing, energy, and cumulative ringing count of acoustic emission gradually increase as the temperature rises. (3) Under varying soaking durations and temperature conditions, sandstone exhibits the lowest total energy, elastic energy, total energy absorption rate, and elastic energy absorption rate at 55 \({}^{\circ}\)C. Conversely, it shows the highest pre-peak dissipated energy and dissipated energy release rate at this temperature. Among different temperatures, the damage variable of sandstone is the largest at 55 \({}^{\circ}\)C.  
(4) The RA parameter of acoustic emission indicates that sandstone mainly undergoes tensile failure. An increase in temperature can effectively promote the development of tensile cracks, while an increase in soaking duration can facilitate the development of shear cracks, but tensile failure remains the dominant failure mode. Data curation: L.W., J.Q. and C.Y. ; formal analysis: S.H. and Y.H. ; supervision: [PERSON]; writing--original draft: [PERSON] and [PERSON]; writing--review and editing: [PERSON] and B.T. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This research is supported by the Basic Scientific Research Business Fee Project of Universities directly under the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (Grant No. 2024 XKJX009); Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia of China (Grant No. 2024 LHMS05044); and Central Support for Local Universities Reform and Development Project--Discipline Construction--Civil Engineering Quality Improvement and Cultivation Discipline Construction Project (Grant No. 0404052401). Not applicable. All participants in this study received informed consent. The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy restrictions but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The authors of the article sincerely appreciate and thank all the people who made it possible to implement this project.