Phenomenological approaches of dissipative heavy ion collisions

These lectures describe the properties of dissipative heavy ion collisions observed in low bombarding energy heavy ion reactions. These dissipative collisions are of two different types: fusion and deep inelastic reactions. Their main experimental properties are described on selected examples. It is shown how it is possible to give a simple interpretation to the data. A large number of phenomenological models have been developped to understand dissipative heavy ion collisions. The most important are those describing the collision by classical mechanics and friction forces, the diffusion models, and transport theories which merge both preceding approaches. A special emphasis has been done on two phenomena observed in dissipative heavy ion collisions: charge equilibratium for which we can show the existence of quantum fluctuations, and fast fission which appears as an intermediate mechanism between deep inelastic reactions and compound nucleus formation