The fluid dynamics of a bubbling fluidized bed is simulated in general curvilinear co-ordinates using an Eulerian two-fluid model. Computations are performed at different pressure levels for a bed with a cross-sectional width of 0.3 m in which two heat exchanger tubes were inserted. A monolayer kinetic energy dissipation model is implemented to simulate the erosion of cooling tube surfaces. The local visible bubble flow and particle motion close to the tubes are correlated with the modelled instantaneous erosion rate. Experiments were conducted in order to validate the erosion simulations, and fair qualitative agreement between experimental and numerical results was obtained.