Investigation of the instability of surrounding rock deformation in deep roadway: From the perspective of stress-driven crack evolution and plastic zone extension

Abstract

Instability of surrounding rock in deep roadways is a key issue in the research on safe and sustainable mining in coal mines. The development of rock cracks and the expansion of plastic zones directly affect roadway stability, and are likely to lead to disasters such as large deformations, roof caving, and sidewall spalling. This paper focuses on the mechanical mechanism of crack development in the surrounding rock of deep roadways. By establishing a mechanical analysis model, conducting discrete element numerical simulations, and analyzing the engineering case studies, the study extensively investigates the progression of crack development and the propagation of the plastic zone in the surrounding rock of roadways. The study clarifies the stress evolution characteristics of the surrounding rock, revealing the mechanical mechanism by which stress drives crack development, leading to the macroscopic instability of the surrounding rock. Additionally, it identifies the relationship between crack development and the distribution of plastic zones in the surrounding rock. The study emphasizes that the damage to the surrounding rock in the disturbed area near the deep roadway aligns with the direction of the minimum principal stress (σ3). Moreover, the extension direction of the plastic zone closely corresponds to the direction of propagation of tensile cracks. A risk zoning method for rock layer instability was proposed based on the characteristics of crack development and plastic zone distribution in the surrounding rock. The reliability of the research results was validated through engineering case studies. The research findings have significant theoretical and engineering implications, offering insights into the process of surrounding rock instability in deep roadways and providing a basis for formulating effective control strategies.

Keywords

Deep roadway / Surrounding rock stability / Stress direction / Rock crack / Plastic zone

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Hongtao Liu: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing - review & editing, Supervision. Rongguang Zhang: Investigation, Methodology, Writing - original draft, Resources. Zijun Han: Formal analysis, Supervision. Zhou Han: Supervision, Investigation. Guang- dong Zhou: Software, Visualization. Wencong Cheng: Supervision, Methodology.

Declaration of competing interest

All authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U24A2086 and U22A20165), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Ph.D. Top Innovative Talents Fund of CUMTB) of China (No. 81001201B013). The authors also thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their valuable advice.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ghm.2026.05.004.

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