Porosity defects was highly related to the keyhole and melt flow dynamic during laser welding process. In this paper, a novel 3D numerical model was developed to describe the keyhole dynamic and melt flow behaviors during laser welding of 5A06 aluminium alloy under subatmospheric pressures. The effect of ambient pressure on laser welding process was taken into consideration by optimizing the boiling point of aluminium alloy and recoil pressure of evaporated metallic vapor jets based on vapor-liquid equilibria calculation and Wilson equation. A moving hybrid heat source model was employed to describe the laser energy distribution under subatmospheric pressures. Numerical results indicated that a wider and deeper keyhole with less humps was produced under subatmospheric pressure comparing with that of atmospheric pressure. The vortices in the rear keyhole wall became unapparent or even disappeared with the decrease of ambient pressures. The melt flow velocity on the keyhole wall was larger under a lower pressure. A smaller difference between boiling point and melting point was produced and this led to the formation of a thinner keyhole wall and improved the stability of molten pool. Larger recoil pressure produced under subatmospheric pressure was responsible for the weakened vortices and enhanced melt flow velocity. Bigger keyhole opening size, larger melt flow velocity, thinner keyhole and the weakened vortices all resulted into the reduction of porosity defects during laser welding of aluminium alloys. Based on the simulation results, the plasma distribution, weld formation and porosity defects had been demonstrated. The compared results showed that the simulation results exhibited good agreements with the experimental ones. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.