Abstract: The study of the evolution of coal and rock mass fracture is helpful to improve the efficiency of gas extraction, reduce gas outburst accidents, and provide a guarantee for the safe production of coal mines.The rock fracture theory is developed from the traditional four fracture theories, i.e.now famous Mohr-Coulomb strength theory, Hoek-Brown strength criterion, etc.,to explain the root cause of rock fracture.This paper summarizes the development process of rock strength theory, and summarizes the differences between different strength theories and their characteristics.Through physical experiments and numerical simulation experiments, the researchers analyzed the fracture evolution law, starting from the preparation of coal samples, introduced the change of loading mode, from uniaxial loading to triaxial loading, and introduced the advantages and disadvantages of different research methods and commonly used numerical simulation software.The authors believes that the combination of experimental and numerical simulation is a trend in the future, and more research methods will emerge to quantitative-qualitatively analyze the fracture propagation process.