Background Coal and rock dynamic disasters are engineering hazards caused by the multi-phase and multi-field coupling instability of coal seams under mining-induced disturbances, which severely restrict the safe extraction of deep resources. Elucidating the mechanism of coal and rock dynamic disasters is the foundation for exploring effective monitoring, early warning, and prevention technologies, while simulation testing apparatus serves as a crucial tool for studying their disaster-causing mechanisms. With the gradual advancement of technological capabilities, China's independently developed simulation testing apparatus has been continuously refined and improved. However, as engineering activities progressively extend to greater depths, the multi-phase and multi-field environment of deep strata imposes higher demands on the functionality and structure of simulation testing apparatus.

Methods To address this, CiteSpace software was employed to systematically review the literature from the past 50 years in China on the development of simulation testing apparatus for coal and rock dynamic disasters.The development trends and current status of these instruments were comprehensively summarized from three aspects: instrument structure and function, multi-field environment simulation, and monitoring devices and methods.

Results and Conclusions  The simulation test instruments for coal and rock dynamic disasters in China have undergone a development process from unidirectional, bidirectional to triaxial loading, realizing the simulation of the real triaxial stress environment of coal-rock strata. By introducing a dynamic load disturbance module, a static-dynamic combined true triaxial loading structure was designed, enabling the simulation of various types of engineering mining disturbances. The multi-field environments that the instruments can simulate have evolved from a single stress field to fluid-solid coupled two fields (stress field and seepage field), and further to thermo-solid-fluid coupled multi-fields, gradually achieving the simulation of the complex multi-physical field environment of real strata. The monitoring devices and methods have advanced from conventional stress-strain monitoring to multi-dimensional information monitoring (encompassing force, acoustics, optics, electricity, vibration, and heat),realizing the accurate capture of disaster-breeding and precursor information during the disaster evolution process. However, deep underground engineering is situated in a complex multi-phase and multi-field disaster-breeding environment, and existing instruments still struggle to truly replicate this complex environment. Three key challenges need to be addressed for future simulation test instruments: First, the instrument structure and function should enable the simulation of the real in-situ stress environment of strata and engineering disturbances with multiple strain rates; Second, it is necessary to achieve in-situ simulation of multi-field coupling environments, including stress field, seepage field, and temperature field; Third, it is essential to develop monitoring devices and methods for dynamically capturing the evolution of multi-field parameters, and introduce artificial intelligence-related technologies to realize the in-situ reproduction of the disaster evolution process.