## 7 Conclusions  
1. Blast-induced roof cutting effectively reduces the length of the cantilever beam on the flexible formwork wall side, transforming the overlying strata boundary structure from a large-scale F-type configuration to a small-scale F-type configuration. This structural modification decreases the load per unit area acting on the flexible concrete wall, thereby mitigating lateral abutment stress and reducing the load imposed on the floor heave-affected zone. Consequently, these mechanisms synergistically achieve robust control over roadway surrounding rock deformation.  
Figure 14: Displacement curve of surrounding rock on the side of wide coal pillar.  
Figure 13: Displacement curve of surrounding rock on the side of the roadway after cutting the roof.  
Figure 15: Deformation of surrounding rock on the side of the roadway after roof cutting.  
2. Compared with non-cutting scenarios, roof cutting significantly reduces plastic zone damage in the roof strata adjacent to the cutting line of the flexible concrete wall gob-side entry retaining roadway. Quantitatively, the floor plastic zone area decreases by 48.0%, the solid coal rib plastic zone diminishes by 18.8%, and the average vertical stress is reduced by 11.7%. These metrics conclusively demonstrate the pronounced pressure relief effect of roof cutting on the flexible concrete wall side.
3. Compared to the wide coal pillar side, the face-end hydraulic supports on the pillarless gob-side entry retaining side after roof cutting exhibit distinct differences in the distribution patterns and magnitudes of working resistance. As the interval resistance increases, the average working resistance of hydraulic supports on the wide coal pillar side demonstrates uniform distribution, ranging from 2635 to 4455 kN. In contrast, the pillarless side post-cutting shows a declining trend in the frequency distribution of average working resistance, with values ranging from 1403 to 4356 kN, resulting in an average reduction of 30% compared to the non-cutting scenario.
4. After roof cutting for pressure relief, the surrounding rock deformation control effects of the track entry on the gob-side entry side and the transportation entry on the 50 m wide coal pillar side are comparable. Although the convergence of the two sidewalls in the track entry on the gob-side entry side remains higher than that on the wide coal pillar side, the average convergence of the roof and floor is controlled within 300 mm, the floor heave convergence is within 240 mm, and the average convergence of the two sidewalls is within 350 mm. This effectively ensures safe production.  
Conceptualization, H.W. and J.G.; methodology, H.W.; software, H.W.; validation, H.W., J.G., formal analysis, H.W.; investigation, H.W.; resources, H.W.; data curation, H.W.; writing--original draft preparation, H.W.; writing--review and editing, J.G.; visualization, H.W.; supervision, H.W.; project administration, H.W. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42472238, 52274091), General Project of Shanxi Province Applied Basic Research Program (20210302123148), and Key R&D Program of Shanxi Province (201903D121075).  
Not applicable.  
The data used to support the findings of this study are included within the article.  
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.