Abstract The classical hydrodynamic approach has been examined regarding the issue of particle pressure in fluidized beds. The particle-pressure distribution around an isolated Davidson's bubble is derived for the constant-voidage case. It is found that the bed expansion stress appears in the upper region and the bed compression in the lower half region around a bubble. The maximum particle pressure is ( 5 4 )ϱ p (1−ϵ mf )gR b for a 2D bubble and ( 3 2 )ϱ p (1−ϵ mf )gR b for a 3D bubble. The negative pressure region which exists right above a bubble has a maximum pressure of (−1)ϱp(1−ϵmfgRb for a 2D bubble and (−0.843)ϱp(1−emf)gRb for a 3D bubble. The theoretical prediction is successfully validated experimentally by a particle-pressure probe developed in the present work.