In recent years, the Swirling Fluidized Bed has been regarded as one of the novel designs in fluidization technology. This new technique features an annular blade distributor which injects the fluidizing gas through a certain inclination, is capable of fluidizing the bed and at the same time causes swirling motion of particles in a circular trajectory. In the present work, the fluidization characteristics and hydrodynamics of a swirling bed are studied using an experimental approach. The behavior of gas-particle interaction in a swirling bed in terms of operation regimes, trend of pressure drop across the bed and the hysteresis effect, are explored with varying bed configurations. Seven sets of particles, three in spherical shape, two in cylindrical shape and two in irregular shape, are used as bed material by considering bed weights from 500 g to 2000 g and blade overlap angles 18° for air velocities up to approximately 3.5 m/s and blade inclination of 10°. The results evidently showed that particle configurations dramatically affect the beds' behavior. © (2012) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.