Pickering emulsions have gained considerable attention for water mobility control because of their high kinetic stability and resistance to coalescence under harsh reservoir conditions. Here, SiO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) combined with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) were used to stabilize emulsions for flow diversion in dual-permeability porous media. The novelty of this work lies in integrating a Box–Behnken experimental design (BBD) with quantitative analysis to evaluate the individual and interactive effects of NPs concentration, surfactant concentration, and water-to-oil (W/O) ratio on emulsion stability and to develop a predictive correlation for the stability index (SI). The model showed excellent agreement with the experimental data (R 2 = 0.9849), identifying NPs concentration as the dominant factor and revealing a significant NPs–surfactant interaction, with an optimal W/O ratio near 60/40. Thermal analysis indicated that the emulsions remained stable up to 80 °C; above this temperature, droplet size increased markedly (47 μm to 149 μm), accompanied by a decrease in stability. Rheological measurements confirmed shear-thinning behavior: viscosity increased from 30 to 57 mPa.s with increasing water fraction and decreased to 15 mPa.s at 120 °C. Micromodel flooding demonstrated effective flow diversion, increasing oil recovery from 46% (50/50) to 68% (75/25) under seawater (SW) flooding, whereas high-salinity conditions reduced recovery to approximately 27–34%.
Ahmadi et al. (Sun,) studied this question.