Given the fact that retaining structures in seismically active areas are key barriers for geotechnical engineering disaster prevention and mitigation, accurately assessing their seismic stability throughout their life cycle is an extremely important and urgent task. However, the traditional stability analysis method ignores the effect of suction stress, which results in a large discrepancy between the calculated results and the engineering practice. In view of this, this study derives the work-energy balance equation that is applicable to unsaturated soils within the framework of the generaliz...