This paper reports measurements of the influence of riser exit geometry upon the particle residence time distribution in the riser of a square cross section, cold model, circulating fluidised bed. The bed is operated within the fast fluidisation regime. The fast response particle RTD technique developed by Harris et al. (Chem. Eng. J. 89 (2002) 127-142) was used to measure the residence time distribution.The geometry of the riser exit is shown to have a modest but consistent influence upon the particle RTD; the influence of operating conditions, i.e. superficial gas velocity and solids flux is more significant.Increasing the refluxing effect of the riser exit increases the mean, variance and breakthrough time and decreases the coefficient of variation of the residence time distribution. Changes in reflux do not have a systematic effect upon the skewness of the RTD. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd.