In order to capture the mechanism of roadway instability in deep mines, a new approach of Physically Finite Elemental Slab Assemblage (PFESA) is proposed in order to construct a large-scale physical model simulating the geologically horizontal strata. We carried out physical modeling on the deformation and failure processes of roadways subjected to a plane loading scheme. Our laboratory tests were based on work which incorporated infrared (IR) detection, IR radiation temperature (IRT) statistics, image feature extraction and 2D Fourier transformation, from resulting thermographies. The IRT characterizes the mechanical responses from the roadway after loading with two stages, i.e., IRT evolving at higher levels corresponded to shallow mining (≤500 m) during which the roadway deformed gradually (referred to as the "steady deformation stage"); IRT evolving in a quasi-cyclical manner with multiple peaks corresponded to deep mining (800-2600 m), in which the failure mode for the roadway are dominated by breakage and collapse (called the "unsteady deformation stage"). The IR images and 2D Fourier spectra illustrate detailed informa-tion in terms of initiation, nucleation and coalescence of the damage to rock masses and the eventual failure of roadways subject to external loading.