A study of the deformation of the surrounding rock and coal pillars near a fault under the influence of mining is conducted on a physical model for the design of coal pillars to support and maintain the roofs of adjacent fault roadways. This research is based on the 15101 mining face in the Baiyangling Coal Mine, Shanxi, China, and uses simulation tests similar to digital speckle test technology to analyse the displacement, strain and vertical stress fields of surrounding rocks near faults to determine the influence of the coal pillar width. The results are as follows. The surrounding rock of the roadway roof fails to form a balance hinge for the massive rock mass. The vertical displacement, vertical strain and other deformation of the surrounding rock near the fault increase steeply as the coal pillar width decreases. The steep increase in deformation corresponds to a coal pillar width of 10 m. When the coal pillar width is 7.5 m, the pressure on the surrounding rock near the footwall of the fault suddenly increases, while the pressure on the hanging wall near the fault increases by only 0.35 MPa. The stress of the rock mass of the hanging wall is not completely shielded by the fault, and part of the load disturbance is still transmitted to the hanging wall via friction. The width of the fault coal pillars at the 15101 working face is determined to be 7.5 m, and the monitoring data verify the rationality of the fault coal pillars.

Foamed concrete is a lightweight, environmentally friendly civil engineering material with excellent absorption capacity. It has been widely applied in engineering fields such as building thermal insulation and pore filling of underground buried pipelines. But the mechanical properties of existing foamed concrete cannot meet the engineering requirements for support, pressure relief and filling of weak surrounding rock. The mechanical properties of foamed concrete were improved with CNTs to prepare CNT foamed concrete (CNTFC) pressure-relieving filling materials. The effects of five factors (the fly ash (FA) incorporation rate, aggregate–cement ratio, water–binder ratio, CNT incorporation rate and foam volume fraction) on the density and 2:1 cylinder strength (the ratio of uniaxial compressive strength to apparent density), splitting tensile (the ratio of splitting tensile strength to apparent density) and specific strength of the CNTFC were analyzed. By combining stress–strain and scanning electron microscopy analyses, the mechanism of improvement of the mechanical strength of CNTFC due to CNTs was clarified. The results show that the foam volume fraction, water–binder ratio and aggregate–cement ratio are the top three factors affecting its strength, followed by the CNT incorporation rate and FA incorporation rate. Among the five influencing factors, only the incorporation of CNTs increases the 2:1 cylinder strength, splitting tensile strength and specific strength. When the doping rate is 0.05%, this ratio specifically refers to the mass of CNTs accounting for 0.05% of the mass of the total cementitious materials of cement and fly ash. At this doping dosage, compared with the condition without CNTs (0% doping dosage), the uniaxial compressive strength increased from 6.23 MPa to 7.18 MPa (with an increase rate of 15.3%). The splitting tensile strength increased from 0.958 MPa to 1.02 MPa (with an increase rate of 6.5%). The density only slightly increased from 0.98 g/cm³ to 1.0 g/cm³ (with an increase rate of 2.0%), achieving the balance of “high strength-low density”. CNTs and cement hydrates are interwoven into a network structure, and the mechanical properties of the CNTFC are effectively improved by the excellent nanoscopic tensile properties. Excessive doping of CNTs takes 0.05% as the threshold. Exceeding this doping dosage (such as 0.10% and 0.15%) leads to a decrease in its strength and ductility due to CNT agglomeration and deterioration of pore structure. And 0.05% is the ratio of the mass of CNTs to the total cementitious materials of cement and fly ash. At this doping dosage, CNTs are uniformly dispersed and can balance the strength and density of CNTFC. The optimum proportion of CNTs is 0.05%.

Continuous roof-cutting gob-side entry-retaining has been increasingly applied in deep coal mines to improve entry stability and reduce rockburst susceptibility. However, the structural response of the overburden and the associated load-transfer mechanisms during continuous extraction of multiple adjacent working faces remain unclear. This study integrates theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, and field microseismic monitoring to investigate the progressive adjustment of overburden structures, stress redistribution, and dynamic response under continuous roof-cutting conditions. The results reveal that continuous roof-cutting drives a staged transformation of the overburden bearing system during successive mining. The overburden structure evolves from an asymmetric fracture–subsidence pattern in the initial working face to a uniform subsidence in the successive working face. This evolution modifies stress-transfer pathways and supports the proposed dual-arch collaborative bearing mechanism, in which loads are redistributed through the compacted gangue and deep coal mass, reducing stress concentration and promoting gradual energy release. Field monitoring recorded 346 microseismic events, with 93.64% occurring ahead of the working face and 52.89% located within the roof strata. The maximum energy of mining-induced microseismic events remained below 1 × 10⁴ J throughout the monitoring period, and no abnormal high-energy events were detected during critical squaring stages. The consistency among analytical interpretation, numerical stress redistribution, and field microseismic response supports the proposed mechanism that continuous roof-cutting regulates overburden movement and promotes distributed energy release, thereby reducing rockburst susceptibility under the investigated mining conditions.