The performance of gas-solid fluidized bed reactors (FBRs) strongly depends on the behavior of gas bubbles. Mechanical agitation is widely used in industrial FBRs to enhance gas-solid mixing; however, its influence on bubble behaviors has been poorly studied, especially in experimental study. Pressure fluctuations in a 300 mm inner diameter plexiglas column fluidized bed of Geldart D particles with an arch agitator were measured under various gas velocities and agitation speeds. The bubble sizes were evaluated by incoherent analysis of pressure fluctuations. The effects of mechanical agitation on axial bubble growth, bubble sizes, regime transition velocity and fines elutriation were comprehensively investigated. Results show that mechanical agitation promotes bubble growth at 1.7 U-mf but reduces the bubble sizes with increasing gas velocities. The axial maximum bubble size with increasing gas velocity occurs at 12 m/s without agitation and 1.0 m/s with agitation speeds of 14 and 21 rpm. Interestingly, mechanical agitation leads to a small increase in minimum fluidizing velocity and a slight decrease in critical turbulent velocity. Furthermore, the entrainment rate is reduced with mechanical agitation, due to the decreasing bed height and small fines ejection at the bed surface. The arch agitator helps to reduce the channel flow, enhance the gas-solid contact efficiency and improve the fluidization quality. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.