Abstract
	During processing of raw materials, in particular, in primary industry, one can very often meet with the term solid bed or solid charge which is processed in furnace units mostly being of the shaft type such as blast, cupola or shaft furnace firing limestone, magnesite, etc.  
	Different technological processes take place in this kind of thermal units. Heat exchange in a solid charge bed is one of the most important. It can be realised by various ways leading to complexity of the thermal units. 
	Control of the thermal units with a solid bed charge requires expertise and knowledge in the field of combustion in a solid bed as well as heat exchange between the fluid and the charge and at the same time heat transfer in the bed itself.
	There are many factors, influencing heat exchange in the bed, that have to be taken into account, among them, predominantly, the grain size distribution, shape of the bed, velocity and temperature of the fluid, the unit size, etc.
	One of the possible solutions is also the determination of the coefficient of heat exchange for a given type of charge applying experimental methods. The great advantage of such a approach is flexible access to the charge bed by means of the measurement probes, possibility to change thermal load of the experimental unit as well as to study different types of charge.
	In the paper a methodology for the determination of the heat exchange coefficient is described based on experiments done on a pilot unit constructed at the Department of Furnaces and Thermal Technology.