Water-air-bubble mixed flow is a complex flow generated by the intense interaction between marine structures and surrounding fluids. It involves a large span of temporal and spatial scale, and has many influencing factors on its generation and evolution. Combining the flow fields of ship and ocean engineering, water-air-bubble mixed flow affects the performance of structures in many aspects, giving the subject strong research significance. This paper reviews the research progress of the mechanism exploration and numerical simulation methods. In terms of mechanism exploration, the present scientific understanding of the formation and evolution mechanisms and the analysis of the phenomenon characteristics of water-air-bubble mixed flow around marine structures are introduced. In terms of numerical simulation methods, the development route and key technical problems of the algorithms are introduced according to insights from elaboration to modeling. Finally, future research prospects are proposed.