Objective The seismic sources, such as roof collapse and artificial blasting, in coal mining may induce stress waves, which will cause the surrounding faults lose its stability and thus cause the dynamic disasters such as rockbursts etc.

Methods The propagation law of stress waves in the fracture structure and the evolution characteristics of friction energy under the action of stress waves were studied through dynamic photoelastic experiment, numerical simulation and theoretical analysis based on the thrust fault F16 in Henan Yima mining area. Meanwhile, the disturbance law of the location of seismic source and energy to the slip of thrust fault was discussed, and the mechanism and type of thrust fault slip under the disturbance of stress waves were elaborated. Results and Conclusions The results show that: (1) The propagation of stress waves will be blocked by fault, which will lead to the intensification of fault activation and the rapid rise of friction energy. (2) The increase of source stress wave energy can strengthen the self-locking effect of fault, and the fault will be unblocked when the energy exceeds a certain threshold. (3) The stress waves will disturb the fault by area from top to bottom, thereby resulting in fault slip, and the slip model of a fault is influenced by its initial stress state and the disturbance intensity of stress waves. (4) High initial static stress and strong disturbance of stress waves are the necessary conditions for fault slips. Generally, the research results have important guiding significance for the development of fault disaster prevention and control technology.