Membrane distillation (MD) is a promising technology for high-salinity water treatment, but scaling still remains a critical limitation to stable operation. This study introduces a novel approach by exploring vibration signal design as a control variable for scaling mitigation in hollow-fiber DCMD, shifting from the conventional treatment of vibration as a fixed-frequency mechanical input. The influence of different vibration modes, including fixed, random, and patterned (music-derived structured non-stationary excitation) vibrations, on CaSO4 scaling in hollow-fiber direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) was systematically investigated. Bench-scale experiments were conducted using synthetic saline feed (35,000 mg/L NaCl and 2000 mg/L CaSO4) under both outside-in and inside-out configurations. The results reveal that vibration modifies flux decline behavior by delaying the critical volume concentration factor (VCFcr) and reducing post-critical scaling kinetics. In the outside-in mode, patterned vibration achieved the highest critical VCF (3.39) and lowest scale formation rate, indicating effective suppression of nucleation and crystal growth. In contrast, fixed-frequency vibration (100 Hz) was more effective in the inside-out mode, owing to resonance-induced amplification of vibration transmissibility (>140%), which enhanced local shear at the membrane surface. Spectral analysis shows that patterned vibration provides broadband and non-stationary excitation with multiple dominant frequencies, enabling continuous disruption of scaling processes, whereas random vibration lacks structured energy distribution. Furthermore, patterned vibration reduced energy consumption by 16–23% compared to fixed and random modes while maintaining comparable or superior fouling mitigation. These findings demonstrate that vibration pattern design, coupled with system resonance characteristics, is a key factor in optimizing MD performance and energy efficiency.
Park et al. (2026) studied this question.