To investigate the strength and failure characteristics of silty mudstone using different stress paths, silt-like mudstone specimens were subjected to triaxial unloading tests. The results indicate the following. (1) When subjected to equivalent initial deviator stress levels and differing confining pressures, the peak stress, residual stress, and elastic modulus, exhibited during unloading, increased concordantly with greater initial confining pressure. Both the peak strain and residual strain increased with rising initial confining pressure. The increase in peak strain and residual strain initially decelerated, then noticeably increased, before ultimately decreasing again. Additionally, the unloading failure time and strain rate demonstrated a negative correlation as the confining pressure increased. (2) Under different initial deviatoric stress conditions, the peak stress, residual stress, and residual strain, under unloading confining pressure conditions, decreased as the initial deviatoric stress levels elevated. Conversely, the peak strain and elastic modulus initially increased, then decreased under increasing initial deviatoric stress conditions. The unloading failure time and strain rate were both observed to decrease as the initial deviatoric stress levels increased. (3) Utilizing the Mohr stress circle enabled the characterization of the shear strength variation in the specimens during the unloading process. The cohesion and internal friction angle remained relatively consistent across the different unloading stress paths appraised, with cohesion being greater in path I versus path II, whereas the internal friction angle exhibited an inverse relationship. (4) The specimen failed during unloading due to lateral expansion caused by unloading confining pressure and collapse failure. The failure fracture surfaces predominantly manifested shear failure morphologies.

In order to analyze the influence of different nanoadditives on the physical and mechanical properties of similar silty mudstone materials, nano‐TiO₂ (NTi), nano Al₂O₃ (NAl), and nanobentonite (NBe) were added to improve the physical and mechanical properties of silty mudstone similar materials. The physical and mechanical parameters are more in line with silty rock. Finally, nanometer additives suitable for silty mudstone similar materials are determined by conducting density test, natural water absorption test, uniaxial compression test, splitting test, softening coefficient test, expansibility test, and microscopic test. The effects of adding NTi, NAl, and NBe on improving the physical and mechanical properties of silty mudstone similar materials were studied to analyze the influence law of different NTi, NAl, and NBe contents on similar material density, natural water absorption, uniaxial compressive strength, tensile strength, softening coefficient, expansion rate, and other physical and mechanical parameters. The microscopic morphology of similar materials was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and the mechanism of influence of nanoadditives on the microscopic structure of samples was revealed. The results are as follows. (1) The density of similar materials of silty mudstone increases with the increase of the content of nanoadditive. The natural water absorption rate decreased first and then increased with the increase of the content of nanometer additives, while the softening coefficient decreased with the increase of the content of nanometer additives. The uniaxial compressive strength and tensile strength increased first and then decreased with the increase of the content of nanometer additives. This is due to the incorporation of the nanoadditive amount effective to promote the hydration reaction of gypsum and accelerate the production of cement, while a similar material may be filled in the pores, reducing the internal defects, a similar material to make denser; when excessive dosage, nanoadditives agglomeration occurs, resulting in deterioration of the effect, but will reduce the mechanical properties of similar materials. (2) When the content of NBe is 6%, the physical and mechanical parameters of similar materials can reach or be closer to the silty raw rock except uniaxial compressive strength. The failure mode of the uniaxial compression specimen is also the same as that of the original rock, which can be used as the best choice. The research results laid the foundation for further analysis of NBe application in similar materials.

In the past few decades, the rapid growth of automobile production in China has led to the scrapping of a large number of tires. How to dispose of tires has become a significant challenge. The addition of crushed rubber to asphalt binder not only can improve the performance of asphalt mixtures but also is an effective and environmentally friendly way to recycle scrapped tires. However, rubber asphalt mixtures demand higher production temperatures than conventional asphalt binders due to the higher viscosity of asphalt rubber binder. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the rheological properties of rubber‐modified asphalt by adding polyamide 6 and investigate the modification mechanism of crumb rubber‐modified asphalt (CRMA) after adding polyamide 6. To this end, the content of waste rubber in the prepared rubber asphalt was 20%. The conventional laboratory rheological tests were employed to evaluate the performance of crumb rubber‐modified asphalt after adding polyamide 6. Furthermore, to investigate the interaction mechanism of crumb rubber and asphalt, a series of advanced tools, including the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) test, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) test, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) test, were conducted. From the experimental results obtained, it may be concluded that crumb rubber‐modified asphalt with adding polyamide 6 not only improves the engineering properties of the rubber‐modified asphalt but also improves the performance of rubber asphalt. From the FTIR and SEM tests, it is concluded that there is no new functional group in the mixing process of crumb rubber and the asphalt, which contributes to the storage stability of asphalt binder and runway.