• Bubble mechanisms occurring in the vertical gas-liquid flow under subcooled boiling are systematically reviewed. • Comprehensive evaluations on the sub-models including bubble nucleation, condensation, coalescence, and breakup are elaborated in case of the high temperature and pressure application. • Different sub-models of the PBM are analyzed for the vertical gas-liquid flow in the application with full working conditions (0-100% load rates). This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation on the sub-models for solving the population balance model (PBM) under subcooled boiling condition in a vertical gas-liquid flow. Firstly, bubble mechanisms occurring in the vertical gas-liquid flow under subcooled boiling are systematically reviewed. Then, comprehensive evaluations on the sub-models including bubble nucleation, condensation, coalescence, and breakup are elaborated in case of the high temperature and pressure application. In addition, the calculating results of different sub-models of the PBM are analyzed for the vertical gas-liquid flow with full working conditions. The results indicate that the detailed evaluation on the PBMs and appropriate models are especially vital for a practical engineering application. Six sub-models, which are related to the magnitude of bubble departure diameter D l , the dependency of inter-phase heat transfer coefficient h , the analysis of interface area concentration a i , comparison of coalescence rate a (d i , d j), tendency of the breakup rate Ω(d p , d d) and dimensionless daughter size distribution β (f bv , 1), are analyzed to evaluate their accuracy and the application situation. These results are helpful to identify the best performing model and provide valid recommendations for solving PBM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]