Experimental investigation of the interaction of multidirectional irregular waves with a large cylinder

•Experiments about multidirectional irregular wave load on a large cylinder were carried out.•The effect of wave parameters on wave force and run-up were investigated.•The wave directionality can cause large transverse forces.•Results can be referred for the design of engineering structures and numerical verification.

Experimental investigations of the interaction of multidirectional irregular waves with a large, vertical bottom-mounted cylinder have been carried out. In the experiments, the ratio of the significant wave height to the water depth has values of 0.08, 0.12, and 0.16, and the relative size of the cylinder with respect to the wavelength varies from 0.44 to 1.26. Recently, many researchers have studied wave loading on large structures. However, there is a lack of high-quality experimental data that can be used for verification. In this paper, experimental measurements of the wave run-up at different locations and wave load on a large cylinder are presented. The results show that the directional spreading parameter has a significant effect on the interaction of multidirectional irregular waves with cylinder. These results may provide a reference for the design of engineering structures and be regarded as basic data for numerical verification.