Thespectralpropertiesofnonlineardragforcesofrandomwavesonverticalcircularcylindersareanalyzedinthispaperbymeansofnonlinearspectralanalysis.Theanalysisprovidesbasicparametersforestimationofthecharacteristicdragforces.Numericalcomputationisalsoperformedfortheinvestigationoftheeffectsofnonlinearityofthedragforces.TheresultsindicatethatthewavedragforcescalculatedbylinearwavetheoryarelargerthanthosecalculatedbythethirdorderStokeswavetheoryforgivenwaves.Thedifferencebetweenthemincreaseswithwaveheight.Thewavedragforcescalculatedbyuseoflinearapproximationareabout5％smallerthantheiractualvalueswhenmeasuredinthepeakvaluesofspectraldensities.Thiswillresultinasafetyproblemforthedesignofoffshorestructures.Therefore,thenonlineareffectofwavedragforcesshouldbetakenintoconsiderationindesignandapplicationofimportantoffshorestructures.
