NLPQL: A fortran subroutine solving constrained nonlinear programming problems

NLPQL is a FORTRAN implementation of a sequential quadratic programming method for solving nonlinearly constrained optimization problems with differentiable objective and constraint functions. At each iteration, the search direction is the solution of a quadratic programming subproblem. This paper discusses the organization of NLPQL, including the formulation of the subproblem and the information that must be provided by a user. A summary is given of the performance of different algorithmic options of NLPQL on a collection of test problems (115 hand-selected or application problems, 320 randomly generated problems). The performance of NLPQL is compared with that of some other available codes.     

A sequential quadratically constrained quadratic programming method with an augmented Lagrangian line search function

Based on an augmented Lagrangian line search function, a sequential quadratically constrained quadratic programming method is proposed for solving nonlinearly constrained optimization problems. Compared to quadratic programming solved in the traditional SQP methods, a convex quadratically constrained quadratic programming is solved here to obtain a search direction, and the Maratos effect does not occur without any other corrections. The “active set” strategy used in this subproblem can avoid recalculating the unnecessary gradients and (approximate) Hessian matrices of the constraints. Under certain assumptions, the proposed method is proved to be globally, superlinearly, and quadratically convergent. As an extension, general problems with inequality and equality constraints as well as nonmonotone line search are also considered.     

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 ROBUST TRUST REGION ALGORITHM FOR SOLVING GENERAL NONLINEAR PROGRAMMING

1. Introductioncrust region methods are iterative. As a strategy of globalization, the trust region approach was introduced into solving unconstrained optimization and proved to be efficient androbust. An excellent survey was given by Mor6(1983). The associated research with trustregion methods for unconstrained optimization can be found in Fletcher(1980), Powell(1975),Sorensen(1981), Shultz, Schnabel and Byrd(1985), Yuan(1985). The solution of the trust region subproblem is still an activ…     

Convergence of the BFGS-SQP Method for Degenerate Problems

In this paper, we propose a BFGS (Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno)-SQP (sequential quadratic programming) method for nonlinear inequality constrained optimization. At each step, the method generates a direction by solving a quadratic programming subproblem. A good feature of this subproblem is that it is always consistent. Moreover, we propose a practical update formula for the quasi-Newton matrix. Under mild conditions, we prove the global and superlinear convergence of the method. We also present some numerical results.     

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.     

New Sequential Quadratically-Constrained Quadratic Programming Method of Feasible Directions and Its Convergence Rate

This paper discusses optimization problems with nonlinear inequality constraints and presents a new sequential quadratically-constrained quadratic programming (NSQCQP) method of feasible directions for solving such problems. At each iteration. the NSQCQP method solves only one subproblem which consists of a convex quadratic objective function, convex quadratic equality constraints, as well as a perturbation variable and yields a feasible direction of descent (improved direction). The following results on the NSQCQP are obtained: the subproblem solved at each iteration is feasible and solvable: the NSQCQP is globally convergent under the Mangasarian-Fromovitz constraint qualification (MFCQ); the improved direction can avoid the Maratos effect without the assumption of strict complementarity; the NSQCQP is superlinearly and quasiquadratically convergent under some weak assumptions without thestrict complementarity assumption and the linear independence constraint qualification (LICQ). Research supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Project 10261001 and Guangxi Science Foundation Projects 0236001 and 0249003. The author thanks two anonymous referees for valuable comments and suggestions on the original version of this paper.     

A modified SQP-filter method for nonlinear complementarity problem

The nonlinear complementarity problem can be reformulated as a nonlinear programming. For solving nonlinear programming, sequential quadratic programming (SQP) type method is very effective. Moreover, filter method, for its good numerical results, are extensively studied to handle nonlinear programming problems recently. In this paper, a modified quadratic subproblem is proposed. Based on it, we employ filter technique to tackle nonlinear complementarity problem. This method has no demand on initial point. The restoration phase, which is always used in traditional filter method, is not needed. Global convergence results of the proposed algorithm are established under suitable conditions. Some numerical results are reported in this paper.     

一类二次规划逆问题的交替方向数值方法

考虑求解一类二次规划逆问题的交替方向数值算法．首先给出矩阵变量子问题解的显示表达式,而后构造了两个求解向量变量子问题近似解的数值算法,其中一个算法基于不动点原理,另一算法则应用半光滑牛顿法．数值实验表明,所提出的算法能够快速高效地求解二次规划逆问题．     

存零约束优化问题的序列二次方法北大核心CSCD

存零约束优化(MPSC)问题是近年来提出的一类新的优化问题,因存零约束的存在,使得常用的约束规范不满足,以至于现有算法的收敛性结果大多不能直接应用于该问题.应用序列二次规划(SQP)方法求解该问题,并证明在存零约束的线性独立约束规范下,子问题解序列的聚点为原问题的Karush-Kuhn-Tucker点.同时为了完善各稳定点之间的关系,证明了强平稳点与KKT点的等价性.最后数值结果表明,序列二次规划方法处理这类问题是可行的.     

A Modified SQP Method and Its Global Convergence

The sequential quadratic programming method developed by Wilson, Han andPowell may fail if the quadratic programming subproblems become infeasibleor if the associated sequence of search directions is unbounded. In [1], Hanand Burke give a modification to this method wherein the QP subproblem isaltered in a way which guarantees that the associated constraint region isnonempty and for which a robust convergence theory is established. In thispaper, we give a modification to the QP subproblem and provide a modifiedSQP method. Under some conditions, we prove that the algorithm eitherterminates at a Kuhn–Tucker point within finite steps or generates aninfinite sequence whose every cluster is a Kuhn–Tucker point.Finally, we give some numerical examples.     

Local properties of inexact methods for minimizing nonsmooth composite functions

Methods for minimization of composite functions with a nondifferentiable polyhedral convex part are considered. This class includes problems involving minimax functions and norms. Local convergence results are given for “active set” methods, in which an equality-constrained quadratic programming subproblem is solved at each iteration. The active set consists of components of the polyhedral convex function which are active or near-active at the current iteration. The effects of solving the subproblem inexactly at each iteration are discussed; rate-of-convergence results which depend on the degree of inexactness are given.     

On the global optimality of generalized trust region subproblems

Quadratically constrained quadratic programming is an important class of optimization problems. We consider the case with one quadratic constraint. Since both the objective function and its constraint can be neither convex nor concave, it is also known as the ‘generalized trust region subproblem.’ The theory and algorithms for this problem have been well studied under the Slater condition. In this article, we analyse the duality property between the primal problem and its Lagrangian dual problem, and discuss the attainability of the optimal primal solution without the Slater condition. The relations between the Lagrangian dual and semidefinite programming dual is also given.     

A working set SQCQP algorithm with simple nonmonotone penalty parameters

In this paper, we present a new sequential quadratically constrained quadratic programming (SQCQP) algorithm, in which a simple updating strategy of the penalty parameter is adopted. This strategy generates nonmonotone penalty parameters at early iterations and only uses the multiplier corresponding to the bound constraint of the quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) subproblem instead of the multipliers of the quadratic constraints, which will bring some numerical advantages. Furthermore, by using the working set technique, we remove the constraints of the QCQP subproblem that are locally irrelevant, and thus the computational cost could be reduced. Without assuming the convexity of the objective function or the constraints, the algorithm is proved to be globally, superlinearly and quadratically convergent. Preliminary numerical results show that the proposed algorithm is very promising when compared with the tested SQP algorithms.     

非线性半定规划一个全局收敛的无罚无滤子SSDP算法

提出了一个求解非线性半定规划的无罚函数无滤子序列二次半定规划(SSDP)算法. 算法每次迭代只需求解一个二次半定规划子问题确定搜索方向; 非单调线搜索保证目标函数或约束违反度函数的充分下降, 从而产生新的迭代点. 在适当的假设条件下, 证明了算法的全局收敛性. 最后给出了初步的数值实验结果.     

Parallel decomposition of multistage stochastic programming problems

A new decomposition method for multistage stochastic linear programming problems is proposed. A multistage stochastic problem is represented in a tree-like form and with each node of the decision tree a certain linear or quadratic subproblem is associated. The subproblems generate proposals for their successors and some backward information for their predecessors. The subproblems can be solved in parallel and exchange information in an asynchronous way through special buffers. After a finite time the method either finds an optimal solution to the problem or discovers its inconsistency. An analytical illustrative example shows that parallelization can speed up computation over every sequential method. Computational experiments indicate that for large problems we can obtain substantial gains in efficiency with moderate numbers of processors.This work was partly supported by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria.     

A descent method with linear programming subproblems for nondifferentiable convex optimization

Most of the descent methods developed so far suffer from the computational burden due to a sequence of constrained quadratic subproblems which are needed to obtain a descent direction. In this paper we present a class of proximal-type descent methods with a new direction-finding subproblem. Especially, two of them have a linear programming subproblem instead of a quadratic subproblem. Computational experience of these two methods has been performed on two well-known test problems. The results show that these methods are another very promising approach for nondifferentiable convex optimization.     

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.     

An interior point method for general large-scale quadratic programming problems

In this paper, we present an interior point algorithm for solving both convex and nonconvex quadratic programs. The method, which is an extension of our interior point work on linear programming problems efficiently solves a wide class of largescale problems and forms the basis for a sequential quadratic programming (SQP) solver for general large scale nonlinear programs. The key to the algorithm is a three-dimensional cost improvement subproblem, which is solved at every interation. We have developed an approximate recentering procedure and a novel, adaptive big-M Phase I procedure that are essential to the sucess of the algorithm. We describe the basic method along with the recentering and big-M Phase I procedures. Details of the implementation and computational results are also presented.Contribution of the National Institute of Standards and Tedchnology and not subject to copyright in the United States. This research was supported in part by ONR Contract N-0014-87-F0053.     

An active set strategy for solving optimization problems with up to 200,000,000 nonlinear constraints

Numerical test results are presented for solving smooth nonlinear programming problems with a large number of constraints, but a moderate number of variables. The active set method proceeds from a given bound for the maximum number of expected active constraints at an optimal solution, which must be less than the total number of constraints. A quadratic programming subproblem is generated with a reduced number of linear constraints from the so-called working set, which is internally changed from one iterate to the next. Only for active constraints, i.e., a certain subset of the working set, new gradient values must be computed. The line search is adapted to avoid too many active constraints which do not fit into the working set. The active set strategy is an extension of an algorithm described earlier by the author together with a rigorous convergence proof. Numerical results for some simple academic test problems show that nonlinear programs with up to 200,000,000 nonlinear constraints are efficiently solved on a standard PC.