Abstract Thousands of spherical fuel elements are transported pneumatically in pipelines in a pebble bed reactor every day. The motion of the fuel element has a strong influence on the efficiency and reliability of the reactor. The motion is determined by the force condition of the fuel element which is determined by the characteristics of the flow field in turn. Thus, it is of great significance to analyze the characteristics of the flow field and the force conditions of the fuel element. In this paper, we carry out simulations of the flow field with a structured mesh based on CFD (computational fluid dynamics). We analyze the effect of the motion and position of the fuel element on the flow field. Then we accomplish the force analysis of the fuel element in the flow, and acquire the fitting formulae of the force and torque on the fuel element. The experiment was performed on the experimental platform. The experimental results are in agreement with the theoretical analysis and verify its accuracy. This research may provide an important rationale for the dynamic and kinematic analysis of the fuel element pneumatic transportation as well as the basis for the stable operation of the reactor.