The paper presents both experimental and numerical investigations of air turbulent flow through six model packings composed of spheres in cubic arrangement and of different turbulence promoters inserted between the spheres. The object of the study was to determine the influence of the bed geometry on its frictional resistance. It has been confirmed that the bed porosity and the hydraulic diameter are not sufficient to describe properly the hydrodynamic properties of an arbitrary designed packing geometry. The CFD approach appears to be more universal. However, the uncertainty of determination of the bed frictional resistance is similar to that in rough pressure drop/flow rate measurements.