面向市场经济，迎接全球化竞争的挑战，为国民经济的发展作贡献，就要十分重视制造业特别是铸造行业的发展。但是，我国铸造行业与国外相比有很大差距，它制约着国民经济的发展。世界各国在铸造成形加工技术的发展趋势方面，认识是一致的，即：一是大型工程中特大型铸件的关键铸造技术；二是向精确成形技术方向发展；三是用计算机模拟仿真逐步代替传统的经验性研究方法。铸造过程计算机模拟仿真是改造传统铸造产业的必由之路，是当今世界各国专家学者关注的热点。铸造充型凝固过程的数值模拟可以帮助工程技术.人员优化工艺设计，缩短试制周期、降低生产成本、确保铸件质量，已成为铸造领域最热门的研究课题之一。目前，凝固过程的流场、温度场数值模拟及缩孔缩松预测已应用于实际生产，应力分析、微观组织模拟等方面的基础研究及实用化进程都取得了很大进展。

Facing the market economy and global challenge, the development of manufacturing industry, especially casting industry is critical to the national economy. However, there is quite a large technical gap between the casting industries at home and abroad. The views on the future trend of innovative casting technologies are consistent at home and abroad. They are： 1) key technology for manufacturing super large and heavy castings for the national engineering projects, 2) net shape casting technologies, and 3) application of modeling and simulation technology to substitute the traditional trial and error method. To reform the traditional casting industry by using computer technology is one of the hottest research frontiers attracted by many researchers and engineers. Computer simulation of solidification process of shaped casting can assure the quality of casting, optimize the casting technology, shorten the lead time and, therefore, decrease the developing and manufacturing cost. Recently, numerical simulation of mold - filling and solidification processes of casting and the prediction of shrinkage defects, etc. , have been put into application in many casting plants at home and abroad, and great progress in stress analysis and microstructure simulation has been achieved.