This study investigates the heterogeneous structure and its influence on drag coefficient for concurrent-up gas-solid flow. The energy-minimization multi-scale (EMMS) model is modified to simulate the variation of structure parameters with solids concentration, showing the tendency for particles to aggregate to form clusters and for fluid to pass around clusters. The global drag coefficient is resolved into that for the dense phase, for the dilute phase and for the so-called inter-phase, all of which can be obtained from their respective phase-specific structure parameters. The computational results show that the drag coefficients of the different phases are quite different, and the global drag coefficient calculated from the EMMS approach is much lower than that from the correlation of Wen and Yu. The simulation results demonstrate that the EMMS approach can well describe the heterogeneous flow structure, and is very promising for incorporation into the two-fluid model or the discrete particle model as the closure law for drag coefficient.