Close limit of grazing black hole collisions: non-spinning holes

Using approximate techniques we study the final moments of the collision of two (individually non-spinnning) black holes which inspiral into each other. The approximation is based on treating the whole spacetime as a single distorted black hole. We obtain estimates for the radiated energy, angular momentum and waveforms for the gravitational waves produced in such a collision. The results can be of interest for analysing the data that will be forthcoming from gravitational wave interferometric detectors, like the LIGO, GEO, LISA, VIRGO and TAMA projects.