According to energy partition principle,we have derived a generalized formula used to calculate the radiation effi-ciency.It overcomes the numerical errors involved in the estimation of radiation efficiency caused by the uncer-tainties owe to the different frictional mechanisms which is used to describe the earthquake faulting.Using real seismic data published in the previous studies,we have recalculated the radiation efficiency with associated to the different frictional mechanisms,and compared with previous results lack of consideration of frictional mechanism.The results indicate that,based on the new formula,the radiation efficiency we have estimated is always less than 1,and the unphysical conclusion of radiation efficiency greater than 1 is avoided completely.