Based on the characteristics of vacuum counter-pressure casting

numerical simulation of filling process of vacuum counter-pressure aluminum alloy was carried out by the standard k-ε module from the ANSYS Fluent software

and a complicated thin-walled aluminum alloy housing was trial-produced by the vacuum counter-pressure casting technology to verify the simulated results. The results indicate that with the decrease of vacuum pressure and the increase of vacuum degree

filling velocity of liquid aluminum alloy is increased with more and more stable without obvious fluctuation phenomenon in filling morphology. With vacuum degree of 20 kPa

aluminum alloy housing castings were filled completely with the great decrease of gas-entrapment defects. Moreover

the experimental results are well in agreement with simulated ones

which shows that numerical simulation can provide a reference for practical production and the forming process optimization of vacuum counter-pressure casting complicated and thin-walled aluminum alloy castings.