The structure optimization of water lubricated bearings is of great significance to improve the loading capacity,cooling performance,vibration and noise reduction property and tribological performance.On the basis of summarizing the advantages and problems of ship water lubricated stern bearing,the research progress on bearing structure design parameters such as bush structure,bush thickness and hardness,bearing clearance,lengthdiameter ratio and bush surface roughness were analyzed and summarized.The structural improvement water lubricated stern bearing,multilayer composite water lubricated stern bearing and closed type water lubricated stern bearing were taken as examples to introduce the structural design of several new types for water lubricated stern bearing in recent years.It was pointed out that the closed type water lubricated stern bearing has a broad application prospect in inland river and coastal ships and it is the research focus and development trend in the future.It was suggested that the research of water lubricated stern bearing should start from the following aspects:first,study the micro interface lubrication mechanism of bearing from the micro nano scale;second,carry out multiobjective optimization of bearing based on considering the coupling effect among bearing parameters;third,further study the material,structure,auxiliary device and water lubrication additive of closed type water lubricated stern bearing and sealing device;fourth,study the design specification of ship water lubricating stern bearing,and establish the empirical formula of bearing design calculation which can meet the engineering requirements within a certain range of accuracy,so as to simplify the bearing design procedure.