  We present a systematic investigation of the star formation rate (hereafter
SFR) in interacting disk galaxies. We determine the dependence of the overall
SFR on different spatial alignments and impact parameters of more than 50
different configurations in combined N-body/hydrodynamic simulations. We also
show mass profiles of the baryonic components. We find that galaxy-galaxy
interactions can enrich the surrounding intergalatic medium with metals very
efficiently up to distances of several 100 kpc. This enrichment can be
explained in terms of indirect processes like thermal driven galactic winds or
direct processes like 'kinetic' spreading of baryonic matter. In the case of
equal mass mergers the direct -kinetic- redistribution of gaseous matter (after
5 Gyr) is less efficient than the environmental enrichment of the same isolated
galaxies by a galactic wind. In the case of non-equal mass mergers however, the
direct -kinetic- process dominates the redistribution of gaseous matter.
Compared to the isolated systems, the integrated star formation rates (ISFRs)
($\int_{t = 0 Gyr}^{t = 5 Gyr}\textnormal{SFR(t)}dt$) in the modelled
interacting galaxies are in extreme cases a factor of 5 higher and on average a
factor of 2 higher in interacting galaxies. Co-rotating and counter-rotating
interactions do not show a common trend for the enhancement of the ISFRs
depending on the interaction being edge-on or face-on. The latter case shows an
increase of the ISFRs for the counter-rotating system of about 100%, whereas
the edge-on counter-rotating case results in a lower increase ($\sim$ 10%).
