There are many techniques to characterize the hydrodynamics of fluidized beds, but new techniques are still needed for more reliable measurement. Bed vibrations were measured by an accelerometer in a gas-solid fluidized bed to characterize the hydrodynamics of the fluidized bed in a nonintrusive manner. Measurements were carried out at different superficial gas velocities and particle sizes. Pressure fluctuations were measured simultaneously. Vibration signals were processed using statistical analysis. For the sake of the evaluation, the vibration technique was used to calculate minimum fluidization velocity. It was shown that minimum fluidization velocity can be determined from the variation of standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis of vibration signals against superficial gas velocity of the bed. Kurtosis was proved to be a new method of analyzing vibration signals. Results indicate that analyzing the vibration signals can be an effective nonintrusive technique to characterize the hydrodynamics of fluidized beds. (C) 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 56: 597-603, 2010