In this short communication, an efficient coarse contact detection scheme for large aspect ratio particles is proposed for use in discrete element method (DEM) modeling of cylindrical particles. Also, minor corrections to the cylinder-cylinder contact criteria, developed by Kodam et al. [Chem. Eng. Sci. 65, 5852-5862 (2010)], are discussed. Lastly, a convenient procedure is put forth for the generation of a densely packed particle bed of large aspect ratio cylinders that are randomly and uniformly distributed in a specified computational domain. Published by Elsevier B.V.