Abstract: Seismic stability analysis is based on the certain potential sliding surface and the yield acceleration of a slope. The potential sliding surface is considered to be a composite of a number of straight lines,and then the potential sliding mass is divided into a number of triangular wedges by a series of inclined straight lines. By the assumption that the slope material obeys a Mohr-Coulomb criterion,the upper bound method and multi-wedge translations mechanism are used to calculate the rate of external work and the rate of energy dissipation for each triangular wedges,respectively,and so to establish the multivariate function to calculate the yield acceleration of reinforced slope. The yield acceleration and the corresponding potential sliding surface can be obtained by optimization. Thence,a new approach is presented in this study to consider the seismic stability of gravity retaining walls. At last,an example is shown to illustrate the method. The influence of shear strength parameters and wall roughness to the yield acceleration and potential sliding surface are analyzed.