Non-coal pillar mining with roadway formed automatically (RFANM) is a new mining approach, which demonstrates revolutionary significance because it does not require making roadway before mining and coal pillar retaining. In order to explore the stability of the surrounding rock structure in RFANM, the deformation of the surrounding rock was theoretically analyzed and simulated based on three different fracture positions of the main roof. It was concluded that reasonable control of temporary support strength in roadway is of great importance to control the deformation of the entry. The deformation process of surrounding rock under different fracture positions in RFANM was simulated by using the Universal Discrete Element Code (UDEC). The results of the numerical simulation showed that the main roof was fractured at the solid coal side or gob side; the deformation of the roadway was small. The fracture condition of the main roof at the gob side required a higher effect of roof slitting or temporary support from the roadway. Through drilling and peeping at the retained roadway, it was judged that the main roof was broken inside the coal wall. Field monitoring results revealed that the deformation of the roadway can be effectively controlled.

Universal distinct element code (UDEC) is a simulation software based on the discrete element method, widely used in geotechnical mining. However, in the UDEC, when simulating large‐scale excavation, the subsidence of the fractured zone is almost equal to the mining height, which makes the deformation value calculated in the study of gob‐side entry retention too large. To solve this problem, in this paper, the double‐yield constitutive model is applied to the whole caving zone to analyze the deformation and failure characteristics of surrounding rock along gob‐side entry retaining by roof cutting. The results of the simulation are in good agreement with the result of drilling peeking (drilling observation by borehole televiewer) and field condition (observation and measurement in the field). Finally, by using this numerical method, the effects of roadway width, temporary support, and coal side support on the failure of the roof and the arc coal side are studied.