Abstract: The study of the transient electromagnetic detection device with small sized coil and easy installation underground will offer new insights into the real-time dynamic exploration and forecast water-bearing structure in excavation roadway.By drawing on the full-space transient electromagnetic theory, this paper adopted the three-dimensional time-domain finite element method for numerical simulation to explore the characteristics of the secondary field response obtained by small coil excitation and the transient electromagnetic response received by the magnetic core coil.This study constructed a geological-geophysical model of the water-bearing fault in front of the roadway excavation working face, studied the transient electromagnetic response characteristics of the small coil device for the water-bearing fault, and compared the effects of small coil and conventional coil in advance detection.The study shows that : ①the decay law of the induced electric potential generated by the small coil source excitation is the same as that of the induced electric potential generated by the conventional transmitting coil with time, ②the magnetic core coil can effectively improve the induced signal strength, ③the application of both the small coil device and the conventional coil device can effectively explain the distribution range of the low resistance area, ④the detection results match the verification results of the roadway excavation.Combined with the underground field test, this paper verified the applicability and effectiveness of the small coil device applied to mine transient electromagnetic method advance detection.