A Sequential Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programming Method of Feasible Directions

In this paper, a sequential quadratically constrained quadratic programming method of feasible directions is proposed for the optimization problems with nonlinear inequality constraints. At each iteration of the proposed algorithm, a feasible direction of descent is obtained by solving only one subproblem which consist of a convex quadratic objective function and simple quadratic inequality constraints without the second derivatives of the functions of the discussed problems, and such a subproblem can be formulated as a second-order cone programming which can be solved by interior point methods. To overcome the Maratos effect, an efficient higher-order correction direction is obtained by only one explicit computation formula. The algorithm is proved to be globally convergent and superlinearly convergent under some mild conditions without the strict complementarity. Finally, some preliminary numerical results are reported. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (No. 10261001), Guangxi Science Foundation (Nos. 0236001, 064001), and Guangxi University Key Program for Science and Technology Research (No. 2005ZD02) of China.     

A sequential quadratically constrained quadratic programming method for unconstrained minimax problems

In this paper, a sequential quadratically constrained quadratic programming (SQCQP) method for unconstrained minimax problems is presented. At each iteration the SQCQP method solves a subproblem that involves convex quadratic inequality constraints and a convex quadratic objective function. The global convergence of the method is obtained under much weaker conditions without any constraint qualification. Under reasonable assumptions, we prove the strong convergence, superlinearly and quadratic convergence rate.     

A Superlinearly Convergent Implicit Smooth SQP Algorithm for Mathematical Programs with Nonlinear Complementarity Constraints

This paper discusses a special class of mathematical programs with nonlinear complementarity constraints, its goal is to present a globally and superlinearly convergent algorithm for the discussed problems. We first reformulate the complementarity constraints as a standard nonlinear equality and inequality constraints by making use of a class of generalized smoothing complementarity functions, then present a new SQP algorithm for the discussed problems. At each iteration, with the help of a pivoting operation, a master search direction is yielded by solving a quadratic program, and a correction search direction for avoiding the Maratos effect is generated by an explicit formula. Under suitable assumptions, without the strict complementarity on the upper-level inequality constraints, the proposed algorithm converges globally to a B-stationary point of the problems, and its convergence rate is superlinear.AMS Subject Classification: 90C, 49MThis work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (10261001) and the Guangxi Province Science Foundation (0236001, 0249003) of China.     

Simple Sequential Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programming Feasible Algorithm with Active Identification Sets for Constrained Minimax Problems

In this paper, the nonlinear minimax problems with inequality constraints are discussed. Based on the idea of simple sequential quadratically constrained quadratic programming algorithm for smooth constrained optimization, an alternative algorithm for solving the discussed problems is proposed. Unlike the previous work, at each iteration, a feasible direction of descent called main search direction is obtained by solving only one subprogram which is composed of a convex quadratic objective function and simple quadratic inequality constraints without the second derivatives of the constrained functions. Then a high-order correction direction used to avoid the Maratos effect is computed by updating the main search direction with a system of linear equations. The proposed algorithm possesses global convergence under weak Mangasarian–Fromovitz constraint qualification and superlinear convergence under suitable conditions with the upper-level strict complementarity. At last, some preliminary numerical results are reported.     

A quadratically approximate framework for constrained optimization,global and local convergence

This paper presents a quadratically approximate algorithm framework （QAAF） for solving general constrained optimization problems, which solves, at each iteration, a subproblem with quadratic objective function and quadratic equality together with inequality constraints. The global convergence of the algorithm framework is presented under the Mangasarian-Fromovitz constraint qualification （MFCQ）, and the conditions for superlinear and quadratic convergence of the algorithm framework are given under the MFCQ, the constant rank constraint qualification （CRCQ） as well as the strong second-order sufficiency conditions （SSOSC）. As an incidental result, the definition of an approximate KKT point is brought forward, and the global convergence of a sequence of approximate KKT points is analysed.     

A method combining norm-relaxed QP subproblems with systems of linear equations for constrained optimization

Based on the ideas of norm-relaxed sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method and the strongly sub-feasible direction method, we propose a new SQP algorithm for the solution of nonlinear inequality constrained optimization. Unlike the previous work, at each iteration, the norm-relaxed quadratic programming subproblem (NRQPS) in our algorithm only consists of the constraints corresponding to an estimate of the active set, and the high-order correction direction (used to avoid the Maratos effect) is obtained by solving a system of linear equations (SLE) which also only consists of such a subset of constraints and gradients. Moreover, the line search technique can effectively combine the initialization process with the optimization process, and therefore (if the starting point is not feasible) the iteration points always get into the feasible set after a finite number of iterations. The global convergence is proved under the Mangasarian–Fromovitz constraint qualification (MFCQ), and the superlinear convergence is obtained without assuming the strict complementarity. Finally, the numerical experiments show that the proposed algorithm is effective and promising for the test problems.     

A superlinearly convergent norm-relaxed SQP method of strongly sub-feasible directions for constrained optimization without strict complementarity

In this paper, a kind of optimization problems with nonlinear inequality constraints is discussed. Combined the ideas of norm-relaxed SQP method and strongly sub-feasible direction method as well as a pivoting operation, a new fast algorithm with arbitrary initial point for the discussed problem is presented. At each iteration of the algorithm, an improved direction is obtained by solving only one direction finding subproblem which possesses small scale and always has an optimal solution, and to avoid the Maratos effect, another correction direction is yielded by a simple explicit formula. Since the line search technique can automatically combine the initialization and optimization processes, after finite iterations, the iteration points always get into the feasible set. The proposed algorithm is proved to be globally convergent and superlinearly convergent under mild conditions without the strict complementarity. Finally, some numerical tests are reported.     

Global convergence of a robust filter SQP algorithm

We present a robust filter SQP algorithm for solving constrained optimization problems. This algorithm is based on the modified quadratic programming proposed by Burke to avoid the infeasibility of the quadratic programming subproblem at each iteration. Compared with other filter SQP algorithms, our algorithm does not require any restoration phase procedure which may spend a large amount of computation. The main advantage of our algorithm is that it is globally convergent without requiring strong constraint qualifications, such as Mangasarian–Fromovitz constraint qualification (MFCQ) and the constant rank constraint qualification (CRCQ). Furthermore, the feasible limit points of the sequence generated by our algorithm are proven to be the KKT points if some weaker conditions are satisfied. Numerical results are also presented to show the efficiency of the algorithm.     

Merit-Function Piecewise SQP Algorithm for Mathematical Programs with Equilibrium Constraints

We propose a merit-function piecewise SQP algorithm for mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints (MPEC) formulated as mathematical programs with complementarity constraints. Under mild conditions, the new algorithm is globally convergent to a piecewise stationary point. Moreover, if the partial MPEC linear independence constraint qualification (LICQ) is satisfied at the accumulation point, then the accumulation point is an S-stationary point. The research of the first author was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grants 10571177 and 70271014. The research of the second author was partially supported by NSERC.     

An SQP algorithm with cautious updating criteria for nonlinear degenerate problems

An efficient SQP algorithm for solving nonlinear degenerate problems is proposed in the paper. At each iteration of the algorithm, a quadratic programming subproblem, which is always feasible by introducing a slack variable, is solved to obtain a search direction. The steplength along this direction is computed by employing the 1∞ exact penalty function through Armijo-type line search scheme. The algorithm is proved to be convergent globally under mild conditions.