Studying the movement law and failure mechanism of overburden is important to underground safety production, aquifer protection, surface subsidence and ecological protection. A commonly used model, the arch structure model, for studying overburden movement is systematically reviewed in this paper. First, the arch structure in the mining field is divided into an unconsolidated layer arch, beam arch (hinged arch), and overburden arch according to arching medium. On this basis, the research progress and existing problems of these three arch structure models are discussed according to the research means, including theoretical modeling, numerical simulation, similar simulation, and field measurements. The application of the arch structure model focuses on the prediction and prevention of mining pressure and surface subsidence, and there are relatively few means to actively regulate overburden arch. Thus, three control methods of the arch structure in underground coal mining are proposed: the preset arch structure method before coal mining, process control arch methods during coal mining, and end reinforcement control arch methods after coal mining. Finally, the main research focus on the arch structure model in the future is discussed.

With the increase in mining intensity and scale, the damage to groundwater resources and surface ecology caused by coal mining has become the main problem facing coal development. Coal mining can cause a redistribution of stress field and stress concentration in local areas of overlying rock, resulting in varying degrees of movement and damage to the overlying rock. Quantitative analysis of the degree of migration and damage in different areas of overlying rock and zoning control is crucial for achieving loss reduction and green mining. In this paper, the overburden damage is divided into regions according to the different causes of formation, regional characteristics of severity, and other factors, and the specific calculation method is given. UDEC7.0 numerical simulation software is used to simulate the overlying rock damage, and the best mining parameters are provided through the area changes in different zones. The research conclusions are as follows: according to the different damage states of overburden rock, the damage of overburden rock can be divided into four parts: I, caving fracture zone, II, fracture development zone, III, sliding failure zone, and IV, slight failure zone. In the four zones, the damage in zones II and IV is relatively light. During the mining process, attention should be given to controlling the development of Zone I to prevent it from abnormally enlarging; for Zone II, hydraulic fracturing can be used when there is a thick, hard key layer that poses a water inrush risk; for Zone III, the focus should be on preventing surface step fractures caused by it. For example, when a thick, hard key layer is present in Zone II, hydraulic fracturing can be applied to avoid large area hanging roofs and severe rock pressure. When the mining height is low, it mainly affects the proportion of regions I and III. With the increase in mining height, the main affected region becomes the II region. The larger the mining height is, the larger the proportion of the II region. With the increase in propulsion speed, the impact range on the surface increases, but the area with severe damage is relatively reduced. With the increase in mining width, the proportion of relatively seriously damaged areas increased. On-site measurements have shown that when the speeds of 120,401 and 22,207 working faces are slow, the rock layer pressure shows a dense state, the overburden fracture is more fully developed, and the area proportion of I and II zones is increased, which reflects the phenomenon of dense surface fracture development on the surface. When the advancing speed is large, the area proportions of zones III and IV increase, and the damage scope decreases. The on-site testing verified the conclusions drawn from theoretical analysis and numerical simulation, which can guide other mines under similar conditions to achieve safe and green production.