The behavior of stress wave propagation in rock walls and the process of rock bursts were simulated by application tests of material similar to rock. Results show that 1) the attenuation characteristics of stress waves were related to the material proper-ties, stress waves attenuate more quickly in soft material and 2) when the explosion load was applied at the top of the roadway, the number and the length of the cracks increased with a decrease in the distance between the explosive point and roof of the roadway. When the distance was 280 mm, only some chips appeared near the source, when the distance was 210 mm, some small cracks started to appear near the road-rib and when the distance was reduced to 140 mm, larger cracks appeared at the road-rib. It can be concluded that, under a given stress the number of cracks is closely related to the intensity of stress waves. The cracks in the sur-rounding rock can be reduced by controlling the intensity of the stress waves and rock bursts can be avoided to some extent by pre-venting the formation of layered crack structures. A new experimental approach has been provided for studying rock bursts by using physical simulation. The behavior of stress wave propagation in rock walls and the process of rock bursts were simulated by application tests of material similar to rock. Results show that 1) the attenuation characteristics of stress waves were related to the material proper- ties, stress waves attenuate more quickly in soft material and 2) when the explosion load was applied at the top of the roadway, the number and the length of the cracks increased with a decrease in the distance between the explosive point and the roof of the roadway. mm, only some of the chips was near the source, when the distance was 210 mm, some small cracks started to appear near the road-rib and when the distance was reduced to 140 mm, larger cracks was at the road-rib. It can be that that under a given stress the number of cracks is closely related to the intensity of stress waves. The cracks in the sur-rounding rock can be reduced by controlling the intensity of the stress waves and rock bursts can be avoided to some extent by pre-venting the formation of layered crack structures. A new experimental approach has been provided for studying rock bursts by using physical simulation.