Data for the study 'Interplay of loading and adsorption controls elastic deformation of clastic and crystalline rocks'

Here we provide the experimental dataset for the study entitled, 'Interplay of loading and adsorption controls elastic deformation of clastic and crystalline rocks', prepared by Wu et al. (2025). We continuously monitor the elastic deformation of a fine-grained sandstone specimen subjected to intermittent cyclic loading at increasing ambient humidity levels (20 to 95%) approaching saturated vapor over 34 days. At each humid condition, mechanical deformation data is acquired via cyclic loading cycles where axial confinement is quasi-statically increased and decreased at a constant rate of 0.5 MPa/sec up to 30 MPa. The specimen is maintained at a static seating load of 1 MPa between load cycles while mechanical deformation data is also recorded. The dataset is stored in a MATLAB .mat file named Data_Exp.mat, structured as follows: Top level: A structure SS_Mech containing 9 fields: RH20, RH30, ..., RH95, each representing a distinct RH condition. Second level: Each RH field contains tens to hundreds of subfields named S46, S47, ..., representing individual cyclic loading–unloading tests conducted approximately every 2 hours. Data format: Each SXX subfield is a table with 9 columns and hundreds to thousands of rows sampled at 10 Hz (cyclic loading) or 0.2 Hz (a static seating load of 1 MPa). We adopt the geomechanics sign convention where compression is positive. Variable definitions: Column Name Description Unit 1 T Time seconds 2 Sd Deviatoric stress MPa 3 ea Axial strain microstrain 4 er Radial strain microstrain 5 xa1 Axial LVDT 1 displacement mm 6 xa2 Axial LVDT 2 displacement mm 7 xr Radial LVDT displacement mm 8 F Axial force kN 9 pos Piston actuator displacement mm