Abstract: To explore the effect of support stress on the stress distribution of surrounding rocks in circular roadways, mechanical models of stress distribution of surrounding rocks were developed for roadways under support stress and triaxial stresses. The proposed model was validated by compared withCOMSOL numerical simulations.By adopting the assignment method, the stress distribution of roadway surrounding rocks was assessed under thirteen different stress conditions (stress P_x, P_y, P_z) with four different support stresses (0.2, 1, 2, 5 MPa). It is found that the axial stress increased with the increase of the depth distance (which means the distance to roadway surface) when the horizontal stress (P_x) was larger than the vertical stress (P_y), whereas the axial stress decreased with the increase of roadway depth when the horizontal stress (P_x) was smaller than the vertical stress (P_y). When the horizontal stress (P_x) was equal to the vertical stress (P_y), the axial stress remained constant and the radial stress increased with the increase of depth, whereas the tangential stress decreased with the increase of depth. The tangential stress of the surrounding rocks decreased with the increase of support stress, and excessive support stress can lead to tensile stress. The radial stress of the surrounding rocks decreased with the increase of support stress. This implied that to some extent, the support stress not only can render the bi-axial stress condition of the roadway surrounding rocks to be triaxial, but also reduce the tangential stress, increase the radial stress, decrease the shear stress of the surrounding rocks, average the stress of the surrounding rocks, which enhanced the roadway stability.