<p>To reveal the stress compensation effect of prestressed rock bolts in the surrounding rock with structural planes, model tests under non-support and high prestress support conditions were carried out. The deformation and failure laws, failure mechanisms, and relative movement states of surrounding rock blocks were compared and analyzed. The function mechanism of prestressed rock bolts in jointed surrounding rock was obtained, considering the stress compensation effects of different rock bolt lengths and prestress values on jointed surrounding rock. The results show the following: (1) Prestressed rock bolts formed a Supporting structure with the tunnel surrounding rock, thereby increasing the ultimate load of the model from 0.42 to 0.6&#xa0;MPa, with a 42.8% improvement in rock mass bearing capacity, and reducing the settlement of surrounding rock at the right arch waist by 83.3%. (2) Prestressed rock bolts restricted the relative movement between blocks, with the block movement restriction rate surpassing 43.7%. The support effect of prestressed rock bolts transformed the longitudinal through-cracks in the arch of the surrounding rock into transverse discontinuous cracks, thus restraining roof fall in the arch and shear failure of the sidewalls. (3) With the increase in the rock bolt length and prestress value, the stress of surrounding rock structural planes also intensified, among which the improvement effect of the prestress value was more obvious. With the increase in rock bolt prestress value, the normal stress compensation of the structural plane at the left arch waist reached 66.7%. When the rock bolt length increased, the normal stress compensation of the structural plane at the left arch waist was 27.7%. The application of prestress compensation support technology at the engineering site stabilized the settlement of the surrounding rock in the tunnel arch at about 5–8&#xa0;mm. The results provide a reference for the support design of jointed surrounding rock in tunnels.</p>