Abstract: Settlement behaviors of pile groups caused by excavation under the basement of an existing building are studied. The hyperbolic model is used to simulate the functions of both pile side and end resistances. The shearing displacement method is employed to calculate the parameters of hyperbolic model of pile side and end resistances. Then, the governing equation for piles is established by using the load transfer method. The reliability of the proposed method is validated by the p-s curves simulated by the ADINA finite element software. The effect of settlement behavior of piles under further excavation is analyzed as well. The results reveal that, the head settlement of the central pile among square arrangement increases with the increasing excavation depth; under the same excavation depth, the head settlements of the corner pile, the side pile and central pile are the maximum, the medium and the minimum, respectively. In addition, different pile arrangements have a certain impact on the settlement behavior of the central pile.