Multi-fluid simulations of heterogeneous bubbly flows in an air-water bubble column were carried out to verify the speculation that a heterogeneous bubbly flow is predictable without turbulence models such as k-epsilon and LES models, provided that the velocity fluctuation caused by large-scale vortical flow structures prevails over the bubble-induced and shear-induced turbulences. Experiments on the heterogeneous air-water bubbly flows in a rectangular bubble column were also carried out to obtain experimental data of the mean velocity, fluctuation velocity and void fraction for validation of the numerical method. A small LDV probe developed in our previous study was utilized to measure the liquid velocity in the column at high spatial and high temporal resolutions. The distribution of void fraction was measured using an electrical conductivity probe. The conclusions obtained under the present experimental conditions are as follows: (1) the small LDV probe is of great use in measuring the distributions of mean and fluctuation velocities of the liquid phase at high spatial and high temporal resolutions, (2) the velocity fluctuation in the heterogeneous regime in the bubble column is mainly due to large-scale vortical structures, and (3) the multi-fluid model can give good predictions of a heterogeneous bubbly flow without using the turbulence models, provided that large-scale vortical structures in the flow prevail over the bubble-induced and shear-induced turbulences. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.