{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]],"date-time":"2026-07-01T18:19:54Z","timestamp":1782929994842,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]],"date-time":"2026-07-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782864000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Suzhou City University National-Level Pre-research Project","award":["No.2024SGY017"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["No.2024SGY017"]}]},{"name":"Youth Science Fund Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["No.51804129"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["No.51804129"]}]},{"name":"Jiangsu Postdoctoral Research Funding Program","award":["No.2019K139"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["No.2019K139"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100013088","name":"Qinglan Project of Jiangsu Province of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["N\/A"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["N\/A"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100013088","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    To investigate the effects of loading rate on the strength evolution, failure mechanism and energy properties of rock-like materials, rock-like specimens were prepared using similar materials, and tests under variable loading rate were conducted through uniaxial compression. Standard cylindrical specimens were fabricated with a fixed sand-binder ratio of 1:9 and three cement-gypsum ratios (1:9, 5:5 and 9:1), using river sand as aggregate and ordinary Portland cement and building gypsum as cementitious materials. The tests were conducted under two loading modes: displacement loading and force loading. The results show that the density of rock-like specimens increases linearly with the rise of cement-gypsum ratio; the stress-strain curves of specimens with different mix ratios all exhibit four stages, namely compaction, elasticity, yield and failure. The uniaxial compressive strength, elastic modulus and deformation modulus increase in the form of logarithmic function with the increase of loading rate, while the peak strain decreases logarithmically; all specimens present columnar splitting failure, and the stress concentration effect induced by force loading is more significant, resulting in a higher degree of failure compared with displacement loading. Moreover, the higher the loading rate, the more fully developed the fractures and the poorer the integrity of specimens. In terms of energy conversion, the lower the loading rate, the smaller the percentage of releasable elastic energy in the absorbed energy (the value of\n                    <jats:italic>U<\/jats:italic>\n                    <jats:sub>e<\/jats:sub>\n                    \/\n                    <jats:italic>U<\/jats:italic>\n                    is greater than 70%), and the larger the percentage of dissipated energy in the absorbed energy (the value of\n                    <jats:italic>U<\/jats:italic>\n                    <jats:sub>d<\/jats:sub>\n                    \/\n                    <jats:italic>U<\/jats:italic>\n                    is less than 30%). As the loading rate increases,\n                    <jats:italic>U<\/jats:italic>\n                    <jats:sub>e<\/jats:sub>\n                    \/\n                    <jats:italic>U<\/jats:italic>\n                    increases as a logarithmic function, while\n                    <jats:italic>U<\/jats:italic>\n                    <jats:sub>d<\/jats:sub>\n                    \/\n                    <jats:italic>U<\/jats:italic>\n                    exhibits an opposite trend. The findings of this study can provide a reference for support design and stability control in deep soft rock engineering.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0349627","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]],"date-time":"2026-07-01T17:37:53Z","timestamp":1782927473000},"page":"e0349627","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Study on mechanical and energy properties of rock-like specimens under the effect of loading rate"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Jingke","family":"Wu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-5440-2547","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Fuxing","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]]},"reference":[{"issue":"16","key":"pone.0349627.ref001","first-page":"2803","article-title":"Study on rock mechanics in deep mining engineering","volume":"24","author":"HP Xie","year":"2010","journal-title":"Chinese J Rock Mechanics and Engineering"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0349627.ref002","first-page":"53","article-title":"Control technology and application of variable-diameter zoned pressure relief for surrounding rock in deep soft rock and large deformation roadway","volume":"53","author":"FF Wu","year":"2025","journal-title":"Coal Science and Technology"},{"issue":"08","key":"pone.0349627.ref003","first-page":"2035","article-title":"Research progress on support technology and methods for soft rock with large deformation hazards in China","volume":"43","author":"Y Kang","year":"2022","journal-title":"Rock and Soil Mechanics"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0349627.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7398","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-021-86815-w","article-title":"Impact of water-rock interaction on the pore structures of red-bed soft rock","volume":"11","author":"M Zhou","year":"2021","journal-title":"Sci Rep"},{"issue":"5","key":"pone.0349627.ref005","first-page":"966","article-title":"Micro-structural characteristics and softening mechanism of red-bed soft rock under water-rock interaction condition","volume":"27","author":"XS Xie","year":"2019","journal-title":"Journal of Engineering Geology"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0349627.ref006","first-page":"843","article-title":"Research on creep characteristics and constitutive model of red bed mudstone under saturated-dehydrated cycle","volume":"29","author":"AR Li","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journal of Engineering Geology"},{"issue":"6","key":"pone.0349627.ref007","first-page":"1709","article-title":"Research saturation test and softening critical phenomena of soft rocks","volume":"31","author":"CY Zhou","year":"2010","journal-title":"Rock and Soil Mechanics"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0349627.ref008","first-page":"33","article-title":"Experimental research on the softening of mechanical properties of saturated soft rocks and application","volume":"24","author":"CY Zhou","year":"2005","journal-title":"Chinese J Rock Mechanics and Engineering"},{"key":"pone.0349627.ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103820","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tafmec.2023.103820","article-title":"Experimental study on compression characteristics of fractured soft rock and its Mohr-Coulomb criterion","volume":"125","author":"H Liu","year":"2023","journal-title":"Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0349627.ref010","first-page":"29","article-title":"Effects of varying loading rates on the Brazilian splitting characteristics of coal-rock composites","volume":"44","author":"Y Chen","year":"2025","journal-title":"J Henan Polytechnic University (Natural Science)"},{"issue":"582","key":"pone.0349627.ref011","first-page":"60","article-title":"Research on fracture propagation and fracture instability precursors of coal under different loading rates","volume":"12","author":"JW Li","year":"2024","journal-title":"Metal Mine"},{"issue":"6","key":"pone.0349627.ref012","first-page":"69","article-title":"Fracturing evolutionary law and energy utilization efficiency of green sandstones under different loading rates","volume":"52","author":"HS Zhao","year":"2024","journal-title":"Coal Geol Exploration"},{"key":"pone.0349627.ref013","first-page":"1","article-title":"The influence of loading rate on the tensile properties and fracture energy consumption of green sandstone","author":"HS Zhao","year":"2025","journal-title":"Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Sunyatseni"},{"issue":"03","key":"pone.0349627.ref014","first-page":"788","article-title":"Study on Damage and Failure Law of Thermostatic Granite under Loading Rate Effect","volume":"20","author":"XK Bao","year":"2024","journal-title":"Chinese J Underground Space and Engineering"},{"issue":"06","key":"pone.0349627.ref015","first-page":"1215","article-title":"Experimental study on instability destruction of slab-failure brittle rock under influences of loading rates","volume":"46","author":"AB Jin","year":"2024","journal-title":"Chinese J Geotechnical Engineering"},{"key":"pone.0349627.ref016","first-page":"1","article-title":"Loading rate effects on infrasound characterization of uniaxial compression damage in marble","author":"YB Zhang","year":"2025","journal-title":"J China Coal Society"},{"issue":"03","key":"pone.0349627.ref017","first-page":"573","article-title":"Study on deformation and failure characteristics of coal containing echelon crack-boreholes under the influence of loading rates","volume":"43","author":"HY Pan","year":"2024","journal-title":"Chinese J Rock Mechanics and Eng"},{"issue":"08","key":"pone.0349627.ref018","first-page":"2231","article-title":"Experiment study on similarity ratio of similar material for model test on red-bed soft rock","volume":"37","author":"X Yang","year":"2016","journal-title":"Rock and Soil Mechanics"},{"key":"pone.0349627.ref019","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1696","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jmrt.2023.01.128","article-title":"Experimental study on mechanical properties and failure behaviours of new materials for modeling rock bridges","volume":"23","author":"C Xu","year":"2023","journal-title":"Journal of Materials Research and Technol"},{"issue":"5","key":"pone.0349627.ref020","first-page":"973","article-title":"Mechanical properties and deformation mechanism of soft-hard interbedded rock-like material based on digital image correlation","volume":"13","author":"Y Luo","year":"2021","journal-title":"J Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0349627.ref021","first-page":"475","article-title":"A comprehensive study of the mechanical properties of rock-like materials for inelastic deformation model establishment","volume":"31","author":"M Trimonova","year":"2025","journal-title":"J Geomechanics"},{"key":"pone.0349627.ref022","first-page":"3217","article-title":"Research on mechanical properties and reasonable parameter values of soft rock in deep buried tunnel","volume":"43","author":"MC Zhang","year":"2024","journal-title":"Chinese J Rock Mechanics and Engineering"},{"issue":"6","key":"pone.0349627.ref023","first-page":"649","article-title":"Mechanical properties of red-bed soft rocks in South China under water-rock interaction","volume":"42","author":"SG Zhang","year":"2023","journal-title":"J Liaoning Technical University (Natural Science)"},{"issue":"21","key":"pone.0349627.ref024","first-page":"263","article-title":"Frature mechanism of coplanar double-fracture composite rock under triaxial compression condition","volume":"43","author":"YJ Si","year":"2024","journal-title":"J Vibration and Shock"},{"issue":"9","key":"pone.0349627.ref025","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2815","DOI":"10.1016\/S1003-6326(23)66300-9","article-title":"Mechanical behavior and failure characteristics of double-layer composite rock-like specimens with two coplanar joints under uniaxial loading","volume":"33","author":"S Li","year":"2023","journal-title":"Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China"},{"issue":"6","key":"pone.0349627.ref026","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1916","DOI":"10.1007\/s11771-022-5048-z","article-title":"Mechanism of stress distribution and failure around two different shapes of openings within fractured rock-like materials","volume":"29","author":"X Fan","year":"2022","journal-title":"J Cent South Univ"},{"issue":"8","key":"pone.0349627.ref027","first-page":"987","article-title":"Optimal selection of similar materials for physical simulation experiments based on rock mineral components","volume":"12","author":"HF Lu","year":"2022","journal-title":"Minerals"},{"issue":"17","key":"pone.0349627.ref028","first-page":"3003","article-title":"Rock strength and overall failure criterion based on energy dissipation and release principle","volume":"24","author":"HP Xie","year":"2005","journal-title":"Chinese J Rock Mechan Eng"}],"container-title":["PLOS One"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0349627","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]],"date-time":"2026-07-01T17:37:58Z","timestamp":1782927478000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0349627"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Jianguo","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"editor"}]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]]},"references-count":28,"journal-issue":{"issue":"7","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0349627","relation":{},"ISSN":["1932-6203"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1932-6203","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]]}}}