en Food Science Food Science پژوهشي Research <p><strong>Background and Objectives: </strong>Pomegranate juice is prone to turbidity, which makes it hard to preserve and concentrate. Microfiltration is one of the membrane processes that can be used to reduce its turbidity, but, it is prone to membrane fouling. Pretreatment is considered the most effective way to reduce membrane fouling.<br> <strong>Materials and Methods: </strong>This study simulated the effect of centrifugation on membrane clarification during the filtration of pomegranate juice using computational fluid dynamics. The geometry of the membrane unit was plotted in GAMBIT software and meshed with quad-mapped meshes, and the problem was solved using fluent software. Samples were centrifuged&nbsp; at 2000 and 4000 rpm for 5 and 10 min.<br> <strong>Results: </strong>The results of simulation showed that centrifugation at 2000 rpm for 10 min had the highest permeate flux. One the other hand, centrifugation at 4000 rpm had the lowest permeate flux. The experimental results were in agreement with the simulation results.<br> <strong>Conclusions: </strong>Velocity of centrifugation should be controlled to maintain the optimum level and achieve the best results. In this study centrifugation at 2000 rpm improved the process yield.</p> Centrifugation, CFD, Clarification, Membrane, Pomegranate, Simulation 25 30 http://nfsr.sbmu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-435-4&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Asieh Aghaei aghaei.asieh@gmail.com 10031947532846002280 10031947532846002280 No Department of Food Technology, College of Abouraihan, University of Tehran, Pakdasht, Iran Hossein Mirsaeedghazi mirsaeed@ut.ac.ir 10031947532846002281 10031947532846002281 Yes Department of Food Sciences and Technology, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technology, Pharmaceutical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Yousef Ramezan y.ramezan@yahoo.com 10031947532846002282 10031947532846002282 No Department of Food Technology, College of Abouraihan, University of Tehran, Pakdasht, Iran