The problem of roadway support in swelling soft rock was one of the challenging problems during mining. For most geological conditions, combinations of two or more supporting approaches could meet the requirements of most roadways; however, in extremely swelling soft rock, combined approaches even could not control large deformations. The purpose of this work was to probe the roadway deformation mechanisms in extremely swelling soft rock. Based on the main return air-way in a coal mine, deformation monitoring and geomechanical analysis were conducted, as well as plastic zone mechanical model was analysed. Results indicated that this soft rock was potentially very swelling. When the ground stress acted alone, the support strength needed in situ was not too large and combined supporting approaches could meet this requirement; however, when this potential released, the roadway would undergo permanent deformation. When the loose zone reached 3 m within surrounding rock, remote stress p ∞ and supporting stress P presented a linear relationship. Namely, the greater the swelling stress, the more difficult it would be in roadway supporting. So in this extremely swelling soft rock, a better way to control roadway deformation was to control the releasing of surrounding rock’s swelling potential.

Crushing and caving of roof strata in goaf is an important factor affecting surface subsidence. In order to study the influence law of mining under thick loose layer, overburden size parameters, and initial mechanical parameters of collapse zone on surface subsidence, the law of surface subsidence was analyzed through measured data. On this basis, with the help of FLAC3D numerical simulation software, the surface subsidence was simulated by changing the above factors, and the evolution characteristics of the maximum surface subsidence under the influence of various factors were analyzed. Based on the grey relational analysis, the relational degree between each factor and the maximum surface subsidence value is analyzed, and through multiple nonlinear regression, the prediction model of mining subsidence deformation under thick loose layer considering the influence of seven factors is established. The results show that the mining thickness has the greatest influence on the surface subsidence, and cohesion has the least influence on surface subsidence. The rationality of the subsidence prediction model is verified by an example.

In mine roadway support operations, floor bolting not only played a role in floor heave control, but also in reinforcing roof and its two sides. Correspondingly, bolting of roof and two sides also played a part in floor heave control. To quantify the effect of such bolting, based on roadway support in extremely weak rock, three physical models were produced and tested in laboratory. Through comparison of their displacements in three physical simulation experiments, the reinforcing effect of bolting in extremely weak rock roadways was quantified. Reinforcing coefficients was defined as displacement ratio between original support and new support regime. Results indicated that the reinforcing coefficients, for bolting of roof and its two sides, on floor, two sides, and roof reached 2.18, 3.56, and 1.81 respectively. The reinforcing coefficients for floor bolting on floor, two sides, and roof reached 3.06, 2.34, and 1.39 respectively. So in this extremely weak rock, the surrounding rock should be considered as an integral structure in any support operation: this allows for better local strength improvement, and provided future design guidance.

In the process of coal mining, the surface subsidence under ultrathick loose layer is abnormal (subsidence coefficient greater than 1.0), which will cause great damage to the surface ecological environment. The fracture propagation and stress evolution of bedrock are of great significance to the prevention of surface subsidence. Taking the 1305 working face of a mine as the background, this paper study the process of crack propagation and stress evolution of bedrock under the influence of ultrathick loose layer by methods of on-site measurement, similar simulation, and numerical simulation. During the research process, the physical model was verified by the measured data. Then, the numerical model was verified by the crack propagation angle and subsidence of bedrock, which were obtained in a similar simulation. Based on the verified numerical model, it was obtained that after the coal seam was mined out, the bedrock above the mined-out area was mainly damaged by tension, while the strata on both sides of the crack expansion angle were mainly damaged by shear and tension. During coal seam mining, for bedrock the process of fracture expansion, subsidence, and stress evolution all could be divided into four stages. This research provides a basis for the control of surface subsidence.

To address the limitations of existing subsidence control technologies in coal mining, this study systematically investigates the fundamental principles of cut-and-fill mining, the stability mechanism of the filling body, and the influence law of key parameters on mining engineering effects, through a comprehensive research framework integrating theoretical analysis, similar material simulation and numerical simulation. Firstly, the mechanical characteristics of horizontal and diagonal shear failure of gangue pillars are revealed via theoretical derivation. It is clarified that the diagonal stability of the gangue pillar can be guaranteed when its aspect ratio is ≤0.5, and the lateral constraint of metal mesh can effectively enhance its horizontal stability. Secondly, based on a physical model with a size similarity ratio of 1:100, the overburden failure characteristics are obtained: only local cracks appear in the immediate roof and the basic roof presents gentle subsidence after cut-and-fill mining, which directly verifies the effective control effect of this technology on mining-induced overburden movement and surface subsidence. On this basis, multiple sets of orthogonal tests are designed using FLAC3D software (5.0) to analyze the effects of roof cutting width, filling width and coal seam thickness on roof displacement and filling area stress. Combined with grey correlation analysis, it is determined that coal seam thickness is the most critical factor affecting the mining effect, with the correlation coefficients for roof displacement and filling area stress reaching 0.79 and 0.93, respectively. The research shows that the parameter combination of 10 m roof cutting width + 10 m filling width (Group 10-10-X) can achieve the optimal balance between subsidence control efficiency and filling engineering benefit; for working faces with higher requirements for surface subsidence control, the combination of 5 m roof cutting width + 10 m filling width is recommended. The research results clarify the action mechanism of cut-and-fill mining, optimize the key engineering parameters, and provide a solid theoretical basis and technical support for the engineering popularization of this technology and high-precision surface subsidence control.