Design/methodology/approach Through model building, meshing and boundary condition setting, the influence of square texture on oil film lubrication performance was simulated and analyzed, and an improved algorithm was applied to perform optimization of lubrication performance. Findings The findings of this study reveal that the optimum lubrication performance is attained when adjusting the parameters of the square texture to 0.12 mm, 0.1 mm, 1 mm and 34 mm. In such circumstances, the thrust bearing with square textures demonstrates an increase in loading capacity of around 19% and a temperature reduction of about 2ºC compared to a smooth thrust bearing. Originality/value The original Reynolds equation is revised, and the influence of square texture on the physical field of oil film is analyzed, considering the turbulence state and cavitation phenomenon. The multi-objective function under square texture parameters was established using BP neural network, and the improved multi-objective salp swarm algorithm was used to optimize the process parameters.