From the two aspects of experiment and simulation, virtual spherical method was used to improve the numerical simulation of the traditional computational fluid dynamics coupling discrete element method (CFD-DEM). The cylindrical particle was regarded as aggregation of small virtual ball, and particle volume factor concept was also introduced to amend the gas-solid force. The gas force acting on the cylindrical particle was calculated through the calculation between gas phase and virtual sphere. The experimental system of flow and heat transfer was established, and the simulation and comparative analysis were also carried out. The mixing index (MI) of the special binary particles was followed by three stages: rapid increase, slow increase and stable phase. With the increase of superficial gas velocity, the mixing index of particles was increased, and the higher gas velocity was favorable for the mixing of the cylindrical biomass and quartz sand. In the experiment of heat transfer, the temperature of cylindrical biomass particles was generally higher than that of quartz sand. When the superficial gas velocity was small, the fluidization of particles was restricted, and the average temperature difference at different heights of fluidized bed was larger. At large gas velocity, the average temperature difference was not obvious. The fictitious element method was employed to solve the incompatibility of the traditional DEM-CFD model. Compared with the infrared thermal images and the simulation results, they were very close and the improved DEM-CFD method can simulate the flow and heat transfer of cylindrical biomass and quartz sand.