Abstract
At present earth pressures under seismic conditions are calculated assuming certain intensities of seismic force to act in the horizontal and vertical directions. In this paper, the seismic force is first assumed to act in a certain direction from the vertical, and this direction is optimized so that its effect is maximum on the earth pressures. Coefficients of active and passive earth pressure have been computed for a wide range of c, φ, N, δ, γ, and β-values. Typical results are presented and discussed. A particular advantage of this approach is that only the magnitude of the seismic force need be known at any place. Its direction has been optimized in the analysis.
