The study presents selected problems concerning the testing of protective structures for the mining machines in the field of passive safety. Such machines equipped with protective structures must meet the requirements of the relevant regulations and standards. Requirements of conducting experimental tests of protective structures: FOPS, ROPS and RSPS are specified. The paper provides the principles of development of computational models for numerical simulations by means of finite element method. A detailed example of comparison of experimental and simulation results for a protective structure is presented.