The Embedded Atom Method (EAM) approach has been applied to the study of five principle gliding systems in zirconium and titanium materials. The stacking fault energy maps are obtained and compared to the results of ab initio calculations. A good agreement was observed between the two approaches. Furthermore, the Critical Resolved Shear Stresses (CRSS) have been determined by Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations based on the EAM potentials. The CRSS in the "a" direction for the basal, prismatic (type 1) and pyramidal (type 2) planes are obtained and compared.

Using the analytic modified embedded atom method (MEAM), the embedding, potential and modifying functions for the Mg and rare earth (RE) metals (RE = Sc, Y, Pr, Nd, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho and Er) are presented. The thermodynamic properties, such as the dilute-limit heats of solution, enthalpies of formation of disordered solid solutions and intermetallic compounds, for the binary Mg-RE alloys are calculated. The obtained results are in good agreement with the available experimental data and with the results calculated using Miedema theory. The calculations of the enthalpies of formation of Mg3 RE, Mg2 RE, MgRE, MgRE2 and MgRE3 with various ordered structures (DO3 , DO19 , L12 , C15, MoPt2 , B2, W1 and L10 ) indicate that the trends in the structural stability can be interpreted directly in terms of the formation energy. Moreover, the lattice constants and volume contractions of alloys with various compositions are determined based on the relation between the formation energy and the interatomic distance. The correlation between the enthalpy of formation and volume contraction for intermetallic compounds is discussed.