Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the coupling iteration method of ANSYS and MATLAB is established to calculate the journal orbits of water-lubricated bearing, and the differences between the journal orbits of the smoothed and the textured water-lubricated bearings are compared and analyzed, and the effects of different bearing materials, L/D ratios and clearance ratios on the lubrication performance of water-lubricated bearings are investigated. The effects of different cavitation models on the static equilibrium position and whirling trajectory of water-lubricated bearings are compared. Findings The results show that when the surface texture is distributed in the upper bearing or the bearing elastic modulus decreases, the bearing stability increases. Considering shear cavitation and noncondensing gas, the rotor journal orbits amplitude decreases at high speed with low clearance ratio. A water film test rig for water-lubricated bearings is built to measure the full-circle water film pressure of water-lubricated journal bearings, and the experimental results are compared with the simulation results, which are in good agreement. Originality/value The findings provide a theoretical basis for optimizing the structure of water-lubricated bearings.