The underground sedimentary bauxite ore body in Shanxi province has a shallow burial depth; the valley terrain caused stress concentration on a pillar which affected the pillar’s safety and goaf stability. This paper proposed a pillar safety coefficient calculation method affected by the goaf structural parameters and the valley terrain, which was based on a pillar mechanics analysis under the valley terrain. The results show that the overlying valley terrain will cause stress concentration on the pillar, reducing the adequate bearing capacity and the pillar stability. The increase of the goaf span b and the height of the pillar h is extensively detrimental to pillar stability. Meanwhile, increasing the pillar burial depth would cause the pillar to weaken, but can effectively decrease the influence of the valley terrain. Furthermore, when the angle between the goaf strike and the valley strike β < 50°, β has a more significant impact on the stress concentration and safety coefficient. The stability of an underground sedimentary bauxite pillar is calculated by the method, the result complied with the actual situation.
Keywords: safety coefficient; sedimentary bauxite; stress concentration coefficient; strip pillars; valley terrain.