AbstractThe rise velocities of bubbles, slugs and pressure waves in a fluidized bed have been measured on‐line through the use of pressure transducers coupled with the cross‐correlation technique. Sand and glass beads with different particle sizes were tested. Effects of the gas flow rate and column diameter on the rise velocities of bubbles and slugs were investigated. The results were correlated with two models developed in this work and were compared with the data obtained by other investigat