Bubble concrete is a new type of lightweight concrete achieved by mixing high-strength hollow bodies into concrete. Different from the stress mechanism of the voided biaxial slab, the hollow bodies are used not only to create multiple cavities in concrete but also to transfer internal stresses. To achieve a better strength of the specimen, this study investigates the arrangement and shape effects of the hollow bodies on the mechanical properties. In addition, a novel hollow body model was proposed to improve the stress distribution to increase strength and reduce density. The density, strength, and stiffness of three types of bubble concrete were investigated through concrete compression experiments. Then, the stress distribution and failure mechanism of the bubble concrete were explored with nonlinear elastoplastic analysis. The results show that the strength and density of bubble concrete with regular arrangement hollow bodies yielded better than the random arrangement. Furthermore, with the new hollow body models, the bubble concrete further increased the strength of concrete to 79.7�85.3 and reduced the density to 80.0�85.0. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd 2024.