U.Porto Journal of Engineering, 9:4 (2023) 1-19 ISSN 2183-6493 DOI: 10.24840/2183-6493_009-004_001761 Received: 18 August, 2022 Accepted: 27 September, 2022 Published: 22 September, 2023 1 Lateral Response of 2 x 2 Pile Group Embedded in Cohesive Soil Near Slope Avinash V. Navale 1 , Chandresh H. Solanki 2 , Vishwas A. Sawant 3 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, India 395007. (navaleavinash@yahoo.com) 2 Department of Civil Engineering, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, India 395007. (chandresh1968@yahoo.co.in) 3 Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India 247667. (vishwas.sawant@ce.iitr.ac.in) Abstract This work studies the response of a 2 x 2 pile group near a slope subjected to lateral load. Three-dimensional, non-linear finite element analysis is carried out. The entire code is developed in FORTRAN 90. Bending-dominated pile and pile caps are represented by 20 node elements with quadratic shape function, and shear-dominated soil elements are represented by eight-node elements with linear shape function. Sixteen node interface element of zero thickness is used for stress transfer between pile and soil. The outcome highlights the influence of slope parameters like slope angle and edge distance on the response of the 2 x 2 pile group near a slope. The lateral displacement and maximum bending moments are increased with an increase in slope. However, its effect reduces with an increase in slope distance. The point of zero-shear along the pile's depth shifts deeper with an increase in slope. Author Keywords. 2 x 2 Pile Group, Slope Angle, Edge Distance, Modified Cam Clay Model, Lateral Load Type: Research Article Open Access Peer Reviewed CC BY 1. Introduction In many situations, the superstructure is subjected to horizontal load. Such as, in tall buildings, transmission towers, and chimneys, wind load governs the design. The drag of the moving vehicles creates the lateral force in bridges. Due to seismic activity, structures experience horizontal force. This lateral force should be transmitted to the ground by the substructure. Mostly pile foundations are used in such cases. In the buildings in a hilly area or abutments of a bridge, the piles are near the slope. The method for analysis and design of laterally loaded piles or pile groups near the slope is still not well established. Several analytical, numerical, and experimental studies have been published for a single pile subjected to lateral stress on level ground.However, studies on pile groups are limited. Georgiadis et al. (1992) performed a series of tests on the model pile to investigate the response of a pile embedded in soft clay subjected to cyclic lateral loads. The results obtained from these tests were compared with numerically predicted pile responses. Based on the test results, the p-y