Longwall Roof Control by Calculation of the Shield Support Requirements

In the 1990s the German mining industry introduced a new generation of shield supports. The new design of support has a maximum load capacity of 10,000 kN, making these units as strong as the shields used in Australia and in the USA. Deutsche Montan technologie (DMT) took more than 3,100 underground observations in order to verify the roof fall frequency by statistical analysis. The results of this work have led to practical recommendations for roof control and the required shield support system on longwall faces.