Coal mine refuge chambers are new devices for coal mine safety which can provide basic survival conditions after gas explosion. In order to simulate the propagation of underground methane/air mixture blast wave, and check structural safety of coal mine mobile refuge chamber, an underground tunnel model and a refuge chamber model have been established based on explicit nonlinear dynamic ANSYS/LS-DYNA 970 program. Results show that the reflected wave pressure on the impact surface was about two times higher than that on the incident one. The relationship between the pressure fields of the chamber was analyzed. The maximum pressure of gas explosion reached about 0.71 MPa, and the pulse width was 360 ms. The maximum absolute displacement and stress occurs at the main door center and the connection of stiffeners and the front plate, respectively. The entire coal mine mobile refuge chamber was in elastic state and its strength and stiffness meet the safety requirements. The cabin door, the front plate and the connecting flange at cabin back as well as the stiffeners on each side were the most critical components. Suggestions were put forward for the refuge chamber. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.