Roof Support

During the past 15 years, roof fall rates have fallen dramatically in US coal mines, particularly in regions where the roof is weakest. The remarkable reduction in the number of roof falls has been accomplished with more effective roof support systems. The purpose of this software package is to implement a design methodology that builds on and quantifies the basic roof support concepts that have been successful in the US.

The methodology starts by defining three modes of roof support, based on the roof strength relative to the stress level:

1) Strong roof, where roof bolts mainly provide skin control,
2) Moderate strength roof, which can be supported by roof bolts alone, and
3) Weak roof, which needs secondary support like cable bolts.

Next, a large data base of roof fall histories at a number of mines is used to define the approximate boundaries of these three regimes, based on the Coal Mine Roof Rating and the depth of cover. Finally, guidelines are presented for site-specific design of support systems within each regime. The new computer package Analysis of Roof Support Systems (AMRS) implements the design methodology.

Below is a timeline of the initial release and updates as well as links to download the program and help information.

  • AMRS was released in June, 2020.
  • Oct 06, 2020 update (v1.0.16): Fixed a number of bugs related to the metric version and to secondary entry and intersection roofbolts.
  • Oct 31, 2020 update (v1.0.24): Added option for entering Ultimate Strength for roof bolts. Added additional output information. Updated help file.
  • Nov 03, 2020 update (v1.0.25): Minor corrections in the output. Updated help file.
  • Feb 21, 2021 update (v1.0.26): Change of splash screen. Fixed bug in standing support interface for intersections.
  • March 07, 2021 update (v1.0.27): Implemented Standard Table for selecting valid US roof bolt combinations.
  • April 09, 2021 update (v1.0.28): Updated help file. Fixed a number of bugs.
  • April 16, 2021 update (v1.0.29): Fixed a bug in the display of results. Added a resource file.
  • December 15, 2021 update (v1.0.30): Fixed a bug in reading the input file.
  • August 15, 2022 update (v1.0.32): Enhanced support of default values.
  • September 1, 2022 update (v1.0.33): Fixed issue with positioning the default roof bolt table.
  • May 7, 2023 update (v1.0.34): Unified terminology on predicted quantities (PSUPg, etc.).

Click here to download the latest AMRS help file in pdf format. Note that this file will automatically be installed in your system upon installing AMRS.

The current version of the AMRS package is 1.0.34 and was released on May 7, 2023. Click here to download.