This paper presents exhaustively the general characteristics of inelastic interactions of 4.5 GeV/ c per nucleon 28Si projectile with different groups of emulsion nuclei. The reaction cross section, the number of interacting projectile nucleons and multiplicities of charged secondaries are analyzed and their dependences on the projectile and target sizes and the impact parameter of the nucleus-nucleus collisions are investigated. The experimental multiplicity distributions and mean values of grey particles are obtained in good agreement with the predictions of a simple analytic model where the input information is the distribution of grey particles produced in proton-induced reactions. The total inelastic cross sections and distribution of the number of interacting projectile protons are discussed in the framework of an extended Glauber model. The multiplicity distributions and mean values of shower particles are found to agree satisfactorily with the results of the independent nucleon-nucleus (NA) superposition model.