The commercial viability of heat exchanger is mainly dependent on their long-term fouling characteristics because the fouling increases the pressure loss and degrades the thermal performance of a heat exchanger. An experimental study was performed to investigate the characteristics of fluid flow and heat transfer in a fluidized bed heat exchanger with circulating various solid particles. The present work showed that the drag force coefficients of particles in the internal flow were higher than those in the external flow, in addition, the solid particle periodically hitting the tube wall broke the thermal boundary layer, and increased the rate of heat transfer. Particularly when the flow velocity was low, the effect was more pronounced.