The vibrated gas-solid fluidized bed with the -0.3 + 0.074 mm magnetite powder was utilized to study the flow pattern of bed and the effects of bubble motion on the fluidization characteristics. The results demonstrated that the standard deviation of the bed pressure fluctuation changed, as the gas velocity increased forming an inverted "U" shape plot. When the bed was in the bubbling fluidization mode, the bubbles were produced with a main frequency of 7.5 Hz and the pressure drop signal energy was high. When the bed was in a quasi-turbulent state, the bed mainly produced relatively smaller bubbles between 7.5 and 20 Hz in frequency and the pressure drop signal energy was low. As the vibration frequency increased, both the bed initiation bubbling velocity u(1) and the onset velocity of turbulent fluidization u(2), decreased. The values of Delta u = u(2) - u(1), firstly increased and then gradually decreased with the increase of vibration frequency. Under the condition of vibration frequency f = 25 Hz and three different vibration amplitudes A (i.e., 1, 2 and 3 mm), the maximum values of Delta u are 8.9 cm/s, 7.67 cm/s and 7.28 cm/s, respectively. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.