This study presents the thermal behaviors of glass beads-rubber mixtures depending on the volumetric fraction of each constituent and relative size between them. The transient plane source method is used to measure the effective thermal conductivity of mixtures. The discrete element method (DEM) and the thermal network model are integrated to investigate the particle-scale mechanism of heat transfer in granular packings. Results show that 1) the effective thermal conductivity decreases as the rubber fraction increases, and 2) the relative size between two solid particles dominates the spatial configuration of inter-particle contact condition that in tum determines the majority of heat propagation path through particle contacts. For the mixtures whose volumetric fraction of rubber is identical, the less conductive materials (e.g., rubber particles) with a large size facilitate heat transfer in granular materials. The experimental results and particle-scale observation highlight that the thermal conduction behavior is dominated not only by the volumetric fraction but also the spatial configuration of each constituent.