Abstract: Taking the No.4 coal seam in the return air roadway in the upper formation No.1 coal mining area of a mine as the background, based on the energy dissipation theory, the energy dissipation mechanical model of arch roadway was established based on the energy balance equation and the energy analysis theory of surrounding rock loose circle, and the failure range of surrounding rock loose circle was positively correlated with the energy dissipation. Based on the Moore-Coulomb strain softening constitutive model, the energy dissipation fish program based on FLAC^3D software was developed and numerical simulation was carried out, and the average energy dissipation range of the roadway in the model was determined to be 5.9 m. Combined with the field drilling imaging test, the failure range of the loose ring of the surrounding rock of the roadway was determined to be 5.9 m and 6.04 m respectively. The above content proves that the energy dissipation theory can be well applied to the analysis of the loose zone of surrounding rock.