[en] A program of experimental study of fluidization of heavy spherical pellets with water using image processing technique has been started in the Nuclear Engineering Department of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Fluidization for application in nuclear reactors requires very detailed knowledge of its behavior as the reactivity id closely dependent on the porosity of the fluidized bed. A small modular nuclear reactor concept with suspended core is under study. A modified version of the reactor involves the choice of is to make conical the shape of the reactor core to produce a non-fluctuating bed and consequently guarantee the dynamic stability of the reactor. A 5 mm diameter steel ball are fluidized with water in a conical Plexiglass tube. A pump circulate the water in a loop feeding the room temperature water from the tank into the fluidization system and returning it back to the tank. A controllable valve controls the flow velocity. A high velocity digital CCD camera captures the images of the pellets moving in the fluidized tube. At different flow velocities, the individual pellets can be tracked by processing the sequential frames. A DVT digital tape record stores the images and by acquisition through interface board into a microcomputer. A spatial program process the data later on. Different algorithm of image treatment determines the velocity fields of the pellets. The behavior of the pellets under different flow velocity and porosity are carefully studied. (author)