Abstract:Under long-term groundwater immersion and high load conditions, strip coal pillars in the old goaf are easy to yield and peel off the coal walls on both sides. It will lead to partial instability of the coal pillars and affect surface buildings. Taking the old goaf formed by strip mining in a certain mining area as the engineering background, based on the AH Wilson coal pillar local yield theory, the yield zone of the coal pillar has been calculated. By using numerical simulation, characteristics of overlying rock damage, vertical stress distribution, and surface movement deformation before and after strip coal pillar instability. It is showed that after the instability of strip coal pillars, the overlying rock still experiences shear damage. The damage at the roof and floor of coal strata has been intensified,with an increased range of tensile failure. The bearing stress of the strip coal pillar increases, and the stress concentration factor of the coal pillar at monitoring line 5 increases is 1.57~1.96. The further away from the coal seam, the smaller the difference in stress concentration factor compared to before the instability of the strip coal pillar. The stress distribution characteristics of the rock layer above 50m from the coal seam remain basically unchanged. The increase in surface subsidence value resulted in a maximum "activated" subsidence of 293 mm caused by coal pillar instability. Finally, based on numerical simulation results, the predicted parameters for subsidence before and after coal pillar stripping were inverted, and the maximum "activated" subsidence value of surface buildings was predicted to be 288 mm. It will provide references for the design of "three underground" coal mining and the protection of surface buildings