When particles are traced individually in a numerical simulation of particle-fluid flow, a point-locating scheme is necessary to relate the coordinates of a given point to the grid cell containing it. A new point-locating scheme combining the advantages of the existing ones is presented in this paper. The new method is first explained in detail. Then its performance under three-dimensional hybrid meshes is compared with the existing approaches in the literature. The results show I hat the proposed method is efficient, multifunctional and easy to implement in a structured/unstructured fluid flow solver. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.