The coal industry is a high risk, high difficulty industry, and the annual global mine accident rate is high, so the safety of coal mine underground operations has been a concern. With the development of technology, the application of intelligent security technology in coal mine safety has broad prospects. In this paper, the research progress of vital signs monitoring and support equipment for underground personnel in coal mines is reviewed. The two main methods to ensure the safety of miners are discussed. They consist of directly monitoring human vital signs through portable devices such as smart helmets and smartwatches and indirectly monitoring underground environmental parameters. In addition, the application of information technology, sensor technology and artificial intelligence in vital signs monitoring is briefly discussed, and some future research directions are proposed. For example, through big data and artificial intelligence technology, vital signs data can be compared with historical data, individual health trends and potential risks can be analyzed, and we can provide personalized health management programs for miners. These technologies not only improve the safety of underground coal mine operation, but also provide an important guarantee for the realization of intelligent and safe coal mine production.

The stability of deeply buried tunnels is significantly influenced by the combined effects of primary joint fissures, blasting-induced damage, high-stress environments, and dynamic disturbances, all of which are key contributors to rock instability. The instability characteristics of rock masses under varying disturbance frequencies and amplitudes remain unclear, making it difficult to establish a reliable basis for tunnel management. This study measured the distribution of joint fissures on the tunnel surface at a burial depth of 1240 m, investigated rock failure characteristics through low-frequency perturbation true triaxial experiments, and analyzed support designs incorporating various combinations of metal mesh, bolts, anchor cables, and shotcrete. The results indicate that as the amplitude and frequency of disturbances increase, the number of cracks in the rock rises significantly and irregularly, while the fractal dimension of the rock’s fracture direction decreases. When the disturbance reaches 10 MPa and 10 Hz, the fractal dimension decreases to a minimum value of 0.62. Additionally, the frequency of pore orientation at angles between 80° and 120° peaks at 52% of its maximum value, approximately 1.68 times that of the original rock. This suggests that the stress experienced by the particles within the rock becomes uneven after disturbance, leading to stress concentration and a pronounced fracture direction. Furthermore, as the amplitude and frequency of disturbances increase, the micropore area observed in scanning electron microscope (SEM) images initially increases rapidly, then continues to grow at a slower rate, with the rate of increase progressively diminishing. Simulations reveal that standard bolts in tunnels subject to dynamic disturbances can effectively resist disturbances with strengths below 40 MPa. However, when the disturbance intensity exceeds 70 MPa, the anchor’s bearing capacity reaches its limit. In the case of bolt-supported tunnels subjected to dynamic disturbances, characteristics such as shallow anchoring depth, low preload force, significant separation of deep surrounding rock, and poor anti-damage ability of the bolts are observed. The use of highly prestressed anchor cable support can resist dynamic disturbances up to 100 MPa and enhance the tunnel’s damage resistance. By combining stress and peak ground acceleration (PGA), the tunnel is classified into five potential risk levels (I to V). Based on this classification, a tunnel support strategy under high-stress disturbances is proposed. Practical applications demonstrate that implementing this strategy reduces the deformation of the surrounding rock by 42.47% to 51.07%, significantly improving the tunnel’s stability.

Scientific and reasonable roof-cutting parameters are key to ensuring pressure relief of the retained roadway roof. This manuscript takes the 7135 working face of Qidong Coal Mine as the engineering background and uses theoretical analysis, numerical and on-site measurement methods to study the quantitative relationship and pressure relief effect between different roof-cutting parameters of GERRC. We established a fracture criterion based on the tensile strength of the main roof of the uncut joint along the cutting line. We analyzed the quantitative relationship between different main roof thickness, cutting height, cutting angle, and the main roof tensile stress of the uncut joint. We found that within a small range of cutting angles, as the cutting angle decreases, the tensile stress on the main roof of the uncut joint increases. When the cutting angle is 0, the main roof tensile stress of the uncut joint reaches its maximum. As the cutting height increases, the limitation of the cutting angle on the cutting height becomes smaller. Numerical simulation was conducted to study the distribution patterns of maximum and minimum principal stresses along the direction of the roadway roof during the retention period under different roof-cutting heights and angles. Based on this, the optimal unloading effect of the roadway roof and the minimum concentration of mining stress were obtained at a roof-cutting height of 9 m and a roof-cutting angle of 80°. Through on-site measurement of the stress on the reinforcement anchor cable during the retention period, the deformation of the sinking roadway roof, and the pressure relief control effect of the retained roadway roof, the pressure relief effect and scientific rationality of the design of the cutting height and cutting angle were verified.