Flow behavior of small and big particles with the same particle density in a bubbling fluidized bed is modeled by a combined approach of discrete particle method and computational fluid dynamics (CFD-DPM). The collision time of a collision pair is computed by a quartic equation in which the effect of acceleration due to the different diameters is considered. A transport energy weighted averaging approach is proposed to determine the local gas velocity at a particle. The fluidization behavior of binary mixture differing in size is experimentally and numerically studied in the gas bubbling fluidized bed. The distributions of mass fraction of small and big particles along the bed height are simulated, and the profiles of the mean particle diameters of binary mixture are determined. The numerical results are in agreement with experimental data. The distributions of granular temperature, stresses, and shear viscosities of small and big particles are compared. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.