A numerical analysis of polydispersed glass particles interacting with a confined turbulent bluff-body flow was performed by combining the finite-volume method for the gaseous flow with a mesh-free Lagrangian approach for the particulate flow. Three turbulence-closure models, namely the Reynolds-stress, the standard k-epsilon, and the nonlinear k-epsilon models, were first comparatively studied for the single-phase flow. The second-moment Reynolds-stress model was then selected for the prediction of the turbulent gaseous flow in a gas-particle system, where an improved eddy-interaction model was used to predict turbulence-induced particle dispersion. The interaction between the two phases was accounted for through coupling source terms. Numerical predictions of two-phase mean and fluctuating velocities for particle sizes ranging from 15 to 115 mum were compared with corresponding experimental data. Reasonably good agreement was achieved for the mean properties of both the gaseous and particulate flows.