This study aims to investigate the effects of wet-dry cycles caused by rainfall-evaporation and acid rain erosion on the stability of argillaceous sandstone slopes. It examines the degradation patterns of mechanical parameters and the evolution of damage and failure in argillaceous sandstone subjected to various acidic wet-dry cycles using uniaxial and triaxial compression tests and acoustic emission monitoring tests. The results indicate a positive correlation between the degradations degrees of uniaxial compressive strength (σ), elastic modulus (E), cohesion (c), and internal friction angle (φ) of argillaceous sandstone and the number of wet-dry cycles. Conversely, the degradation rate shows a negative correlation with the cycles. Confining pressure retards the degradation process, while acidic environments intensify the degradation of rock samples with σ being highly sensitive under acidic wet-dry cycles. Mechanical parameters exhibit a significant logarithmic relationship with the number of wet-dry cycles across different pH conditions. The acoustic emission ringing counts and energy evolution characteristics can be categorized into three phases: an initial active phase, a stable growth phase, and a peak rapid increase phase. Distinct precursors to abrupt failure are evident during the stable growth phase. The RA-AF tensile crack signals consistently decrease due to the strengthening effects of acidic wet-dry cycles. Additionally, the characteristics of acoustic emission localization events shift from a central axial cluster to an oblique random distribution, indicating a transition in damage from tensile to shear failure. The composite accuracy for identifying the damage state of argillaceous sandstone using an acoustic emission datadriven model achieved 93.33%. The ringing count and maximum energy features contributed 81.63% to this accuracy, highlighting the model’s ability to accurately capture the intrinsic correlation between damage state levels and acoustic emission data.

It is of great significance for the safe construction of shale gas tunnels to deeply understand the evolution law of permeability of laminated shale with macro fractures under cyclic disturbance. The permeability evolution of shale specimens containing axial beddings and axial macro fractures under cyclic axial stress and cyclic confining pressure was experimentally studied using the GCTS rock mechanics testing system. The results show that the permeability of shale specimens containing axial beddings did not change significantly during the loading and unloading of axial stress, but it decreased in a negatively exponential form with the increasing confining pressure and increased exponentially with the decreasing confining pressure. The permeability of shale samples containing macroscopic fractures decreased linearly with the increasing axial stress and increased linearly with the decreasing axial stress, while it decreased in a negatively exponential form with increasing confining pressure and increased exponentially with the increasing confining pressure. The permeability of shale specimens containing axial fractures is significantly higher than that of shale specimens with axial beddings, about 9 times the later one. The sensitivity of shale specimens to confining pressure is about 26 times that to axial stress. The permeability of the specimen almost keeps constant regardless of the number of axial stress loadings and unloadings, but decreases in a negatively exponential form with the increasing confining pressure cycles, and the major reduction occurs in the first cycle. The findings can somewhat provide theoretical support for the safe construction of shale gas tunnels.