Abstract：Wherever the rock mass structures are located，groundwater always permeates through weak structure zones and may break through a key stratum and burst abruptly into working faces and form water inrush. It is shown by the theories and practice of water inrush prevention that the water inrush paths are generally in forms of ‘column pipelines’similar to karstic collapse columns of finite cross section area and different shapes，such as circular，ellipse，trapeziform，etc. Therefore，column pipelines of water inrush in coal mine areas can be imaged as‘thick wall canister’in terms of mechanics，the water inrush from roof and floor as‘lid failure of thick wall canister’，the water inrush from lateral walls of coal columns as‘lateral wall failure of the canister’，and hydraulic pressure and rock stress in the paths of water inrush as inner and outer pressures of the canister，respectively. Based on the imagination between column pipeline of water inrush and thick wall canister，the former can be generalized as column pipelines of uniform patterns，and simulated with mechanical models of thick wall canisters. When conditions of water inrush are analyzed with this model，shear failure theory in the structure analysis can be employed and mechanics analysis of models is reasonably simplified. The criteria of water inrush can be induced by a limit balance between the hydraulic pressure and shear of strata. The water inrush possibilities and locations can be effectively predicted and prevent in practice. It is indicated by an example of a very large water inrush volume on the 2171 working face，Fangezhuang mineral ltd.，that generalized water inrush patterns are correct， the models of thick wall canisters can be applied in practice and proposed criteria are correct and agree well with mining practice.
