In order to remove incombustible impurity minerals, a vibrated dense medium fluidized bed (VDMFB) can be adopted for fine coal dry separation, while Geldart B magnetite powder can serve as the medium. The influence of vibration on characteristic gas velocity in flow pattern transition stage was experimentally investigated at a vibration amplitude range of 0.5-4 mmand frequency range of 5-35 Hz. The experimental results demonstrate that at a low frequency (f < 10 Hz), the vibration effect results in a denser bed and a slightly smaller initial fluidization gas velocity. As the vibration frequency increases to a level similar to the bed's natural frequency, the minimum fluidization gas velocity reduces sharply. The minimum fluidization gas velocity correlation in the VDMFB is obtained by means of theoretical deduction and experimental data fitting. Furthermore, a method is proposed for evaluating the effects of vibration on improving fluidization quality. Based on that, using the coal separation probable error E-p <= 0.1 as the evaluation index, a suitable effective operating gas velocity range for coal separation under different vibration parameters is determined. The ratio of the boundary operating gas velocity to U-mfc is 0.67-2.28. Thus, a uniform and stable fluidization environment is provided for dry fine coal separation. (C) 2018 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.