Abstract
The Coulomb and nuclear heavy ion (HI) potentials are derived for an interacting pair of deformed nuclei assuming sharp surface model for each nucleus. The orientation and separation dependences of the Coulomb and nuclear interactions are studied. It is assumed (238)U + (238)U as an example, and the effect of quadrupole term is investigated. For the nuclear potential part based on M3Y nucleon-nucleon interaction, the sharp surface model shows much difference compared with the more accurate frequently used multipole expansion method while the success of this model in calculating the Coulomb potential between this deformed pair of nuclei exists in the physically important surface region.