This paper develops an efficient approach to modeling and analyzing the overall dynamics of polydisperse particulate systems, exemplified using a rotating drum with horizontal axis, under both constant and time-varying operating conditions. This approach captures the collective dynamics using stochastic models in the form of Markov chains. The characteristics of such dynamics can be obtained from the Markov chains operator. It provides a systematic way to the analysis of collective dynamical features of particle movements. The obtained operators are used to estimate the spatial particle distribution and the degree of particulate mixing as examples of collective dynamic features of polydisperse particulate systems. In this paper, Markov chains models were developed from discrete element method simulation results to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. (C) 2013 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.