Abstract: In light of the soft broken thick features of immediate roof mudstone of 15101 working face in Pingdingyutai Coal Mine, the methods of traditional supports have been unable to control tunnel deformation. The large deformation mechanism of 15101 return airway was analyzed. According to the large deformation and easily broken features of the return airway with soft broken thick mudstone roof, the combined support of anchorage cable + corrugated steel tape + metal mesh supporting method is applied. Supporting effects of traditional support and combined support methods are analyzed respectively by means of numerical simulation. The results show that combined supporting effect is better than traditional support method.