The similar simulation experiment platform for the temperature field of surrounding rock in roadway was established based on similarity theory. It was made possible to verify simulation results of the Finite Volume Method. In order to reveal the heat dissipation rules in roadway, the mathematical model of transient temperature field for the surrounding rock in roadway was established, and dimensionless parameters were introduced into the model to make the model non-dimensional. The Finite Volume Method based on triangular mesh was used to discretize the dimensionless equation and the dimensionless temperature distribution for the transient temperature field of surrounding rock in roadway was obtained. At the wall face in roadway, the dimensionless temperature decreases gradually with the increase of Biot coefficient and Fourier coefficient, and finally tends to a certain value. The curves of the unstable heat transfer criterion and the corresponding laws of variation were obtained by further calculation. The numerical results have shown that the unstable heat transfer criterion decreases with the increase of the Fourier number at a constant Biot coefficient, while it increases with the increase of Biot coefficient at a constant Fourier coefficient. The research results in this paper provide a simple and reliable algorithm to determine the unstable heat transfer criterion derived from the corresponding parameter values of an arbitrary transient temperature field of surrounding rock in roadway. For mine cooling technicians, it provides important reference basis to calculate the chilling requirements and study the heat dissipation rules of surrounding rock in roadway.