Interaction between geological body and structural body in a three-body model

A three-body model composed of two geological bodies and a structural body was developed to explore how ground-support systems respond to axial loads in underground spaces. A detailed method was designed to fabricate physical scale-model specimens for testing. Three types of specimens were constructed to investigate how three different materials reacted to each other under load. The three types of specimens were called the weak-rock model, hard-rock model and mixed model. The results of uniaxial compression tests show that the mechanical behaviour of a three-body structural support is closely related to the interaction between the three bodies, but owing to different mechanisms, the three types of material behave very differently. To explain the test results, numerical simulations were conducted to explore fully the load responses of the three-body model specimens. The numerical simulations verify the hypotheses proposed for how the three types of material interact.