Rock burst is a typical dynamic disaster of deep underground engineering. The frequency and intensity of rock burst increases rapidly with the construction depth, which seriously threatens the normal production and personnel safety of mines. In the next 5 years or even 10 years, the mechanism, early warning and prevention of rock burst will continue to be the research focus and vital problems to be solved. High strength compression elastic properties are stored in the coal body with impact tendency, especially in some coal bodies with energy accumulation. The release of corresponding elastic property caused by roadway excavation and working face advancement is the fundamental cause of rock burst, especially the excavation and unloading of deep rock mass, which makes the elastic energy stored in rock mass release rapidly and massively.

With the increasing demand for energy security, it is of great significance to study the mechanism of rock burst prediction, early warning, and control methods. Research can reveal the impact mechanism from the aspects of physical and mechanical properties of coal and rock materials, geological structure of disaster area, engineering disturbance, etc., successively put forward the strength theory, impact tendency theory, deformation instability theory, stress control theory, impact start theory, dynamic and static load superposition induced impact theory, and divide the types of impact ground pressure from different angles. On the other hand, rock mechanics test is also the key technology to reveal the mechanism of rock burst. It is of great significance to explore the precursory information of rock mass damage by using a variety of test methods to reveal the mechanism of rock burst.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to study the risk identification, monitoring, and early warning of rock burst disaster, summarize the rock failure characteristics test and its impact precursor information monitoring methods, further understand the nature of rock burst, and prevent disaster accidents. At the same time, it provides an opportunity of academic exchange for researchers in related fields around the world. We welcome both original research and review articles about rock mechanics test, acoustic emission characteristics of rock damage and failure, rock fracture prediction and numerical simulation, rock impact damage monitoring and early warning, and related rock burst monitoring case studies.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Test method of rock burst
• Damage characteristics and precursory information monitoring of coal rock triaxial unloading test
• Accurate testing of multi-information after rock failure
• Damage and failure mechanism of combined coal rock
• Microstructure characteristics of rock
• Triaxial failure characteristics of rock
• Damage characteristics of rock under hydraulic coupling
• Unloading failure characteristics of fractured rock mass
• Acoustic emission signal processing
• Nonlinear mechanical analysis of acoustic emission waveform