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Design standards and codes of practice on earth slope stability often recommend the pseudo-static method of analysis for determining the factor of safety of a slope subjected to seismic forces. In most pseudo-static methods of analysis, the horizontal seismic force is considered without due weightage to vertical seismic force. In the past, Taylor's stability chart for a homogeneous cohesive-frictional soil slope has been extended to consider the effect of horizontal seismic force only. In this paper, an attempt is made to develop an analytical formulation considering both horizontal and vertical seismic forces in order to estimate the factor of safety of the homogeneous, cohesive-frictional soil slopes with simple profiles using Taylor's stability chart. The analytical formulation is based on the friction circle method, which is one of the methods of static slope stability analysis. Several field cases have been analysed considering slope geometry, soil properties and seismic loading conditions so that Taylor's stability chart can be routinely used by practising engineers considering the effects of both horizontal and vertical seismic forces. An illustrative example is included in order to explain how practising engineers can use the graphical presentations developed in this paper as the design charts for stability analysis. This illustrative example has also been solved using Plaxis 2D, a commercially available finite-element software, as a comparison.

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The present paper describes briefly the establishment of an adequate mathematical framework to describe the liquefaction phenomenon which uses the Biot's basic theory for dynamics of saturated porous media. The variational principle is applied to the field equations of fluid flow in a fully saturated porous elastic continuum, and the finite element method is used to numerically solve the resulting continuity equation and equilibrium equation. In-situ stresses are computed from static analysis prior to dynamic analysis. Pastor-Zienkiewicz Mark III constitutive model is used to describe the inelastic behavior of soils in the dynamic simulations. Kelvin elements are attached to transmitting boundary to absorb the wave energy and prevent back propagation of wave into the soil domain. The response of fluid-saturated porous media which are subjected to time dependent loads has been simulated numerically to predict the liquefaction of a loose sandy soil layer. It is noticed that liquefaction occurs throughout all the depth of sand layer at frequency 1 Hz of the cyclic loading. This model is compared with centrifuge experimental results and shows good predictive capacity. Effect of frequency is more significant. With increase in frequency, substantial increase in displacement and EPP is observed.