The absence of a key stratum during overburden rock movement is crucial to the mining pressure of fully mechanized coal mining faces. Using physical and numerical simulations, the 21304 mechanized mining in Daliuta and Huojitu coal mining faces 1−2 appeared twice during a pressure frame accident analysis. The results indicate that a lack of key overlying strata is crucial to the mining of lower coal seams, particularly for the upper sections of a single key stratum of coal. When the key stratum of the upper coal seam is absent, a stable masonry structure is formed after mining. It is easy to form stable stacked strata at the bottom of a coal seam. When developing gullies in deep terrains, the formation of the key stratum will be an upper rock fracture affected by the impact, resulting in a partial absence of the key stratum. When the key stratum is absent, the mining of upslope working faces and the probability of dynamic strata pressure increase with the overburden on the working face and mining of downslope faces. The face mine pressure development laws on the upper and lower coal seam mining were similar, mainly manifesting as “slope section >valley bottom section >back slope section.”

A mechanical model of a hard roof was built to analyze the pressure relief roof cutting (RCPR) process for gob-side entry retaining (GER) and identify the critical stage of roadway stability control during RCPR. Based on the mechanical analysis of key parameters of automatic roadway with RCPR, the FLAC3D software was adopted to conduct a numerical simulation to investigate the influence law of height and angle of RCPR, to analyze the trend of variations in the vertical displacement of roadway surrounding rock stress and the roof under different conditions, and to verify that the optimal roof cutting height and seam cutting angle of the 12201 working face of Halagou Coal mine are 6 m and 20°, respectively. The effect of automatic roadway with RCPR has been well implemented through conducting the bidirectional cumulative blasting test on site. To impose effective roadway surrounding rock controlling measures on Halagou Coal mine in RCPR of hard, coal-bearing roof structures at a shallow mining depth, constant resistance large deformation anchor cables, in combination with a single hydraulic prop, joist steel 11#, and steel mesh reinforcement, could provide active surrounding rock support. In addition to the active support, surrounding rock control could be strengthened using grouting bolts. Based on the result, the stress in the roadway coal side and the vertical displacement of the roof can be reduced through increasing the roof cutting height, contributing to the stability of the roadway. Increasing of the roof cutting angle will lead to the increasing of stress in the coal side of the roadway and the increasing of roof displacement with a maximum angle of 20°. Meanwhile, the peak of stress concentrating on both sides of the extreme angle is decreased. Thus, increasing the cutting roof angle at random can be unfavorable to the management of roadway roof. To develop RCPR GER, roadway surrounding rock requires greater support when the mine face passes through a cutting slot. After industrial trials, these measures are proved to be effective in controlling surrounding rock movement and developing GER.

The objective of this study was to reveal the law of overburden movement and stress evolution during the mining of super-high fully mechanized mining faces. Based on the 12401 fully mechanized mining face of Shangwan Coal Mine in Shendong, this study conducted research and analysis using the methods of similarity simulation experiment, numerical simulation, and field measurement. The results showed that the maximum and minimum principal stresses in the coal seam in front of the working face are concentrated with the advance of the working face. The degree of stress concentration increases with the increase in the advancing range, and the concentration degree of the maximum principal stress and the change gradient is greater than that of the minimum principal stress. But the range of the peak lead coal wall is lower than that of the minimum principal stress of the peak lead coal wall. The phenomenon of stress recovery exists in the goaf. With the increase in the advancing range of the working face, the degree of stress recovery gradually increases, and the degree of maximum principal stress recovery is higher than that of the minimum principal stress recovery. The large fractures observed near the working face are closely related to the underground pressure, relatively large fractures appear on the surface, and the fractures become narrower near the two pathways. Only caving and fissure zones exist in the thin bedrock overburden, and the bending subsidence zone changes with the bedrock thickness. The support strength of the hydraulic support should not be less than 1.47 MPa. This research on the overburden movement and stress evolution law of a super-high fully mechanized mining face can provide theoretical guidance for the exploitation and utilization of extrathick coal seam resources. It has broad engineering prospects.