Abstract: To study the influence of the advance speed of mining face on the close coal seam in initial mining period, settlement characteristics, separation characteristics and stress distribution characteristics of the close-distance coal seam at different advance speed of the mining face in initial mining period were analyzed by using 3DEC discrete element numerical simulation software. The results show that: the higher the advance speed is, the larger the first weighting interval is; the higher the advance speed is, the faster the goaf separation zone expands, the bigger the expansion range is, but the lower the steady speed is; rapid mining can perturb the front of the mining face in the close distance coal seam to some extent, but because of the time effect of the separation, the separation zone of the front of the mining face is largest when the mining is at a medium speed; after the roof collapses at the first time, the stress zone of the close-distance coal seam near the goaf mainly consists of tensile stress zone, compaction zone and pressure relief zone. The higher the advance speed is, the farther the tensile stress zone appears from the mining position, and the smaller the tensile stress zone is. The higher the advance speed is, the smaller the compaction zone is, the bigger the pressure relief zone is.