<p>During the construction of underground engineering, the natural stress state of rock mass is destroyed under excavation disturbance. It affects the stability of surrounding rock mass and the construction progress of the project in mild cases, and triggers collapse accidents causing huge losses in severe cases. In this study, a special shallow-buried section of the Daling Tunnel is selected. Based on the refined statistics of joints at the tunnel face, the dominant joint groups that mainly control the stability of surrounding rock in this section are obtained. Through Discontinuous Deformation Analysis for Rock Failure (DDARF) numerical simulation, the whole process of crack propagation and coalescence around the tunnel is obtained. By arranging monitoring at key positions, the displacement variations of the arch crown, shoulder, haunch and floor under excavation disturbance are acquired. A series of tests on the process of crack initiation, propagation and coalescence in rock mass of underground engineering provide a reference for revealing the failure mechanism of rock mass and ensuring the safe construction of underground engineering.</p>