The large diameter steel cylinder structure is a new type of hydraulic structure that has emerged in recent years.It has advantages of simple structure，fast construction speed，good structural stress conditions，low cost，and can adapt to the hostile environment of deep water and large waves，which has broad application prospects in soft soil areas.During the construction of steel cylinder，its stability under wind and wave load is the main issue of engineering concern.Taking the steel cylinder revetment of a wharf project in the East China Sea as the research object，we study the failure mode and stability of the steel cylinder structure through the geotechnical centrifugal model test，and analyze the characteristics of displacement，the cylinder wall soil pressure，cylinder body strain and etc.The results show that the failure mode of steel cylinder structure on soft soil foundation under horizontal load is mainly inclined failure，not overall translation.The ultimate load of the steel cylinder is about 2 times of the horizontal load when it loses stability and fails.Under the action of horizontal load，the soil pressure of the cylinder wall on the land side gradually increases，and the soil pressure of the cylinder wall on the sea side gradually decreases，and the soil pressure of the cylinder wall on the land side is significantly greater than that on the sea side.The strain of the cylinder increases with the depth，and the stress of the cylinder at the bottom of the steel cylinder is significantly greater than that at the top.