A heuristic lagrangean algorithm for the capacitated plant location problem

Lagrangean techniques have been widely applied to the uncapacitated plant location problem, and in some cases they have proven to be successfull even when capacitated problems with additional constraints are taken into account. In our paper we study the application of these techniques to the capacitated plant location problem when the model considered is a pure integer one. Several lagrangean decompositions are considered and for some of them heuristic algorithms have been designed to solve the resulting lagrangean subproblems, the heuristics consisting of a two phase procedure. The first (location phase) defines a set of multipliers from the analysis of the dual LP relaxation, and makes a choice of the plants considering the resulting subproblems as a particular case of the general assignment problems. Several heuristics have been studied for this second phase, based either on a decomposition of knapsack type subproblems through a definition of a set of penalties, or of looking into the duality gap and trying to reduce it. Computational experience is reported.     

Linearly constrained minimax optimization

We present an algorithm for nonlinear minimax optimization subject to linear equality and inequality constraints which requires first order partial derivatives. The algorithm is based on successive linear approximations to the functions defining the problem. The resulting linear subproblems are solved in the minimax sense subject to the linear constraints. This ensures a feasible-point algorithm. Further, we introduce local bounds on the solutions of the linear subproblems, the bounds being adjusted automatically, depending on the quality of the linear approximations. It is proved that the algorithm will always converge to the set of stationary points of the problem, a stationary point being defined in terms of the generalized gradients of the minimax objective function. It is further proved that, under mild regularity conditions, the algorithm is identical to a quadratically convergent Newton iteration in its final stages. We demonstrate the performance of the algorithm by solving a number of numerical examples with up to 50 variables, 163 functions, and 25 constraints. We have also implemented a version of the algorithm which is particularly suited for the solution of restricted approximation problems.This work has been supported by the Danish Natural Science Research Council, Grant No. 511-6874.     

Smoothed penalty algorithms for optimization of nonlinear models

We introduce an algorithm for solving nonlinear optimization problems with general equality and box constraints. The proposed algorithm is based on smoothing of the exact l ₁-penalty function and solving the resulting problem by any box-constraint optimization method. We introduce a general algorithm and present theoretical results for updating the penalty and smoothing parameter. We apply the algorithm to optimization problems for nonlinear traffic network models and report on numerical results for a variety of network problems and different solvers for the subproblems.     

Dynamic Programming Method for Constrained Discrete-Time Optimal Control

A dynamic programming method is presented for solving constrained, discrete-time, optimal control problems. The method is based on an efficient algorithm for solving the subproblems of sequential quadratic programming. By using an interior-point method to accommodate inequality constraints, a modification of an existing algorithm for equality constrained problems can be used iteratively to solve the subproblems. Two test problems and two application problems are presented. The application examples include a rest-to-rest maneuver of a flexible structure and a constrained brachistochrone problem.     

Arc routing problems with time-dependent service costs

This paper studies an arc routing problem with capacity constraints and time-dependent service costs. This problem is motivated by winter gritting applications where the “timing” of each intervention is crucial. The exact problem-solving approach reported here first transforms the arc routing problem into an equivalent node routing problem. Then, a column generation scheme is used to solve the latter. The master problem is a classical set covering problem, while the subproblems are time-dependent shortest path problems with resource constraints. These subproblems are solved using an extension of a previously developed algorithm. Computational results are reported on problems derived from a set of classical instances of the vehicle routing problem with time windows.     

一种具有非线性约束线性规划全局优化算法

本文提出了一种新的适用于处理非线性约束下线性规划问题的全局优化算法。该算法通过构造子问题来寻找优于当前局部最优解的可行解。该子问题可通过模拟退火算法来解决。通过求解一系列的子问题,当前最优解被不断地更新,最终求得全局最优解。最后,本算法应用于几个典型例题,并与罚函数法相比较,数值结果表明该算法是可行的,有效的。     

AN EFFECTIVE SEQUENTIAL QUADRATIC PROGRAMMING ALGORITHM FOR NONLINEAR OPTIMIZATION PROBLEMS

In this paper,a new globally convergent algorithm for nonlinear optimization prablems with equality and inequality constraints is presented. The new algorithm is of SQP type which determines a search direction by solving a quadratic programming subproblem per itera-tion. Some revisions on the quadratic programming subproblem have been made in such a way that the associated constraint region is nonempty for each point x generated by the algorithm, i. e. , the subproblems always have optimal solutions. The new algorithm has two important properties. The computation of revision parameter for guaranteeing the consistency of quadratic sub-problem and the computation of the second order correction step for superlinear convergence use the same inverse of a matrix per iteration, so the computation amount of the new algorithm will not be increased much more than other SQP type algorithms; Another is that the new algorithm can give automatically a feasible point as a starting point for the quadratic subproblems pe     

A linear programming-based optimization algorithm for solving nonlinear programming problems

In this paper a linear programming-based optimization algorithm called the Sequential Cutting Plane algorithm is presented. The main features of the algorithm are described, convergence to a Karush–Kuhn–Tucker stationary point is proved and numerical experience on some well-known test sets is showed. The algorithm is based on an earlier version for convex inequality constrained problems, but here the algorithm is extended to general continuously differentiable nonlinear programming problems containing both nonlinear inequality and equality constraints. A comparison with some existing solvers shows that the algorithm is competitive with these solvers. Thus, this new method based on solving linear programming subproblems is a good alternative method for solving nonlinear programming problems efficiently. The algorithm has been used as a subsolver in a mixed integer nonlinear programming algorithm where the linear problems provide lower bounds on the optimal solutions of the nonlinear programming subproblems in the branch and bound tree for convex, inequality constrained problems.     

An augmented Lagrangian method for optimization problems with structured geometric constraints

This paper is devoted to the theoretical and numerical investigation of an augmented Lagrangian method for the solution of optimization problems with geometric constraints. Specifically, we study situations where parts of the constraints are nonconvex and possibly complicated, but allow for a fast computation of projections onto this nonconvex set. Typical problem classes which satisfy this requirement are optimization problems with disjunctive constraints (like complementarity or cardinality constraints) as well as optimization problems over sets of matrices which have to satisfy additional rank constraints. The key idea behind our method is to keep these complicated constraints explicitly in the constraints and to penalize only the remaining constraints by an augmented Lagrangian function. The resulting subproblems are then solved with the aid of a problem-tailored nonmonotone projected gradient method. The corresponding convergence theory allows for an inexact solution of these subproblems. Nevertheless, the overall algorithm computes so-called Mordukhovich-stationary points of the original problem under a mild asymptotic regularity condition, which is generally weaker than most of the respective available problem-tailored constraint qualifications. Extensive numerical experiments addressing complementarity- and cardinality-constrained optimization problems as well as a semidefinite reformulation of MAXCUT problems visualize the power of our approach.

     

Simulated annealing with asymptotic convergence for nonlinear constrained optimization

In this paper, we present constrained simulated annealing (CSA), an algorithm that extends conventional simulated annealing to look for constrained local minima of nonlinear constrained optimization problems. The algorithm is based on the theory of extended saddle points (ESPs) that shows the one-to-one correspondence between a constrained local minimum and an ESP of the corresponding penalty function. CSA finds ESPs by systematically controlling probabilistic descents in the problem-variable subspace of the penalty function and probabilistic ascents in the penalty subspace. Based on the decomposition of the necessary and sufficient ESP condition into multiple necessary conditions, we present constraint-partitioned simulated annealing (CPSA) that exploits the locality of constraints in nonlinear optimization problems. CPSA leads to much lower complexity as compared to that of CSA by partitioning the constraints of a problem into significantly simpler subproblems, solving each independently, and resolving those violated global constraints across the subproblems. We prove that both CSA and CPSA asymptotically converge to a constrained global minimum with probability one in discrete optimization problems. The result extends conventional simulated annealing (SA), which guarantees asymptotic convergence in discrete unconstrained optimization, to that in discrete constrained optimization. Moreover, it establishes the condition under which optimal solutions can be found in constraint-partitioned nonlinear optimization problems. Finally, we evaluate CSA and CPSA by applying them to solve some continuous constrained optimization benchmarks and compare their performance to that of other penalty methods.     

An Adaptive Dual Parametrization Algorithm for Quadratic Semi-infinite Programming Problems

The so called dual parametrization method for quadratic semi-infinite programming (SIP) problems is developed recently for quadratic SIP problems with a single infinite constraint. A dual parametrization algorithm is also proposed for numerical solution of such problems. In this paper, we consider quadratic SIP problems with positive definite objective and multiple linear infinite constraints. All the infinite constraints are supposed to be continuously dependent on their index variable on a compact set which is defined by a number equality and inequalities. We prove that in the multiple infinite constraint case, the minimu parametrization number, just as in the single infinite constraint case, is less or equal to the dimension of the SIP problem. Furthermore, we propose an adaptive dual parametrization algorithm with convergence result. Compared with the previous dual parametrization algorithm, the adaptive algorithm solves subproblems with much smaller number of constraints. The efficiency of the new algorithm is shown by solving a number of numerical examples.     

Global convergence on an active set SQP for inequality constrained optimization

Sequential quadratic programming (SQP) has been one of the most important methods for solving nonlinearly constrained optimization problems. In this paper, we present and study an active set SQP algorithm for inequality constrained optimization. The active set technique is introduced which results in the size reduction of quadratic programming (QP) subproblems. The algorithm is proved to be globally convergent. Thus, the results show that the global convergence of SQP is still guaranteed by deleting some “redundant” constraints.     

一类带反凸约束的非线性比式和问题的全局优化算法

本文针对一类带有反凸约束的非线性比式和分式规划问题,提出一种求其全局最优解的单纯形分支和对偶定界算法.该算法利用Lagrange对偶理论将其中关键的定界问题转化为一系列易于求解的线性规划问题.收敛性分析和数值算例均表明提出的算法是可行的.     

An SQP-type algorithm for nonlinear second-order cone programs

We propose an SQP-type algorithm for solving nonlinear second-order cone programming (NSOCP) problems. At every iteration, the algorithm solves a convex SOCP subproblem in which the constraints involve linear approximations of the constraint functions in the original problem and the objective function is a convex quadratic function. Those subproblems can be transformed into linear SOCP problems, for which efficient interior point solvers are available. We establish global convergence and local quadratic convergence of the algorithm under appropriate assumptions. We report numerical results to examine the effectiveness of the algorithm. This work was supported in part by the Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.     

A convergent decomposition algorithm for support vector machines

In this work we consider nonlinear minimization problems with a single linear equality constraint and box constraints. In particular we are interested in solving problems where the number of variables is so huge that traditional optimization methods cannot be directly applied. Many interesting real world problems lead to the solution of large scale constrained problems with this structure. For example, the special subclass of problems with convex quadratic objective function plays a fundamental role in the training of Support Vector Machine, which is a technique for machine learning problems. For this particular subclass of convex quadratic problem, some convergent decomposition methods, based on the solution of a sequence of smaller subproblems, have been proposed. In this paper we define a new globally convergent decomposition algorithm that differs from the previous methods in the rule for the choice of the subproblem variables and in the presence of a proximal point modification in the objective function of the subproblems. In particular, the new rule for sequentially selecting the subproblems appears to be suited to tackle large scale problems, while the introduction of the proximal point term allows us to ensure the global convergence of the algorithm for the general case of nonconvex objective function. Furthermore, we report some preliminary numerical results on support vector classification problems with up to 100 thousands variables.     

Solving Variational Inequality Problems with Linear Constraints by a Proximal Decomposition Algorithm

The alternating direction method solves large scale variational inequality problems with linear constraints via solving a series of small scale variational inequality problems with simple constraints. The algorithm is attractive if the subproblems can be solved efficiently and exactly. However, the subproblem is itself variational inequality problem, which is structurally also difficult to solve. In this paper, we develop a new decomposition algorithm, which, at each iteration, just solves a system of well-conditioned linear equations and performs a line search. We allow to solve the subproblem approximately and the accuracy criterion is the constructive one developed recently by Solodov and Svaiter. Under mild assumptions on the problem's data, the algorithm is proved to converge globally. Some preliminary computational results are also reported to illustrate the efficiency of the algorithm.     

A distributed Douglas-Rachford splitting method for multi-block convex minimization problems

A customized Douglas-Rachford splitting method (DRSM) was recently proposed to solve two-block separable convex optimization problems with linear constraints and simple abstract constraints. The algorithm has advantage over the well-known alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM), the dual application of DRSM to the two-block convex minimization problem, in the sense that the subproblems can have larger opportunity of possessing closed-form solutions since they are unconstrained. In this paper, we further study along this way by considering the primal application of DRSM for the general case m≥3, i.e., we consider the multi-block separable convex minimization problem with linear constraints where the objective function is separable into m individual convex functions without coupled variables. The resulting method fully exploits the separable structure and enjoys decoupled subproblems which can be solved simultaneously. Both the exact and inexact versions of the new method are presented in a unified framework. Under mild conditions, we manage to prove the global convergence of the algorithm. Preliminary numerical experiments for extracting the background from corrupted surveillance video verify the encouraging efficiency of the new algorithm.     

Column enumeration based decomposition techniques for a class of non-convex MINLP problems

We propose a decomposition algorithm for a special class of nonconvex mixed integer nonlinear programming problems which have an assignment constraint. If the assignment decisions are decoupled from the remaining constraints of the optimization problem, we propose to use a column enumeration approach. The master problem is a partitioning problem whose objective function coefficients are computed via subproblems. These problems can be linear, mixed integer linear, (non-)convex nonlinear, or mixed integer nonlinear. However, the important property of the subproblems is that we can compute their exact global optimum quickly. The proposed technique will be illustrated solving a cutting problem with optimum nonlinear programming subproblems.     

Mathematical Programs with Vanishing Constraints: Optimality Conditions,Sensitivity, and a Relaxation Method

We consider a class of optimization problems with switch-off/switch-on constraints, which is a relatively new problem model. The specificity of this model is that it contains constraints that are being imposed (switched on) at some points of the feasible region, while being disregarded (switched off) at other points. This seems to be a potentially useful modeling paradigm, that has been shown to be helpful, for example, in optimal topology design. The fact that some constraints “vanish” from the problem at certain points, gave rise to the name of mathematical programs with vanishing constraints (MPVC). It turns out that such problems are usually degenerate at a solution, but are structurally different from the related class of mathematical programs with complementarity constraints (MPCC). In this paper, we first discuss some known first- and second-order necessary optimality conditions for MPVC, giving new very short and direct justifications. We then derive some new special second-order sufficient optimality conditions for these problems and show that, quite remarkably, these conditions are actually equivalent to the classical/standard second-order sufficient conditions in optimization. We also provide a sensitivity analysis for MPVC. Finally, a relaxation method is proposed. For this method, we analyze constraints regularity and boundedness of the Lagrange multipliers in the relaxed subproblems, derive a sufficient condition for local uniqueness of solutions of subproblems, and give convergence estimates. Research of the first author was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research Grants 07-01-00270, 07-01-00416 and 07-01-90102-Mong, and by RF President’s Grant NS-9344.2006.1 for the support of leading scientific schools. The second author was supported in part by CNPq Grants 301508/2005-4, 490200/2005-2 and 550317/2005-8, by PRONEX-Optimization, and by FAPERJ.     

Stochastic and Risk Management Models and Solution Algorithm for Natural Gas Transmission Network Expansion and LNG Terminal Location Planning

Due to the increasing demands for natural gas, it is playing a more important role in the energy system, and its system expansion planning is drawing more attentions. In this paper, we propose expansion planning models which include both natural gas transmission network expansion and LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) terminals location planning. These models take into account the uncertainties of demands and supplies in the future, which make the models stochastic mixed integer programs with discrete subproblems. Also we consider risk control in our models by including probabilistic constraints, such as a limit on CVaR (Conditional Value at Risk). In order to solve large-scale problems, especially with a large number of scenarios, we propose the embedded Benders decomposition algorithm, which applies Benders cuts in both first and second stages, to tackle the discrete subproblems. Numerical results show that our algorithm is efficient for large scale stochastic natural gas transportation system expansion planning problems.