Investigation of the efficiency of longwall top coal caving method applied by forming a face in horizontal thickness of the seam in steeply inclined thick coal seams by using a physical model

The longwall top coal caving (LTCC) is a widely used method for producing thick coal seams. This method is applied in two different ways in steeply inclined thick coal seams by forming a longwall at the horizontal thickness of the seam and the slope of the seam. In the LTCC method, the top coal loss is generally expressed as the coals remaining behind the support units after the face advance. However, in addition to this coal loss in steeply...