Polymer composites are the primary materials for water-lubricated bearings owing to their superior wear resistance, low friction coefficient, and resistance to water and corrosion. Their performance directly governs the safety, reliability, and operating costs of the bearing systems. This paper provides a systematic review of the properties of commonly used polymer composites for water-lubricated bearings and recent research progress. It focuses on analyzing the load-carrying capacity, wear resistance, and frictional behavior of different materials, while comparing their relative advantages and limitations. Finally, by addressing the current challenges with existing materials, the review proposes future research directions for high-performance water-lubricated bearing materials and suggests strategies for optimizing their design and engineering applications, aiming to offer valuable insights for further development.

Highstrength polymer materials with excellent mechanical properties and wear?resistance have been widely used in water pumps, electric generator and other fields as a new generation of bearing materials. A high performance polyurethane/carbon fiber composite （PUE/CF） was prepared by combining chopped carbon fiber (CF) with polyurethane elastomer (PUE), and the effects of carbon fiber content on the mechanical and tribological properties of the composites were investigated. The results show that the hardness of the composite can reach 60 ~ 68 HD, the tensile strength and elongation at break can reach 54 MPa and 298% respectively. Under dry friction condition, 0.16 of friction coefficient and 0.570% of wear rate can be obtained. Under water friction condition, 0.02 of friction coefficient and 0.129% of wear rate can be obtained. In summary, the composite prepared in this paper can meet the application requirements of polymer bearing bush and have broad application prospects in the field of automobile and ship.