An ellipsoid algorithm for nonlinear programming

We investigate an ellipsoid algorithm for nonlinear programming. After describing the basic steps of the algorithm, we discuss its computer implementation and present a method for measuring computational efficiency. The computational results obtained from experimenting with the algorithm are discussed and the algorithm's performance is compared with that of a widely used commercial code. This research was supported in part by The National Science Foundation, Grant No. MCS78-02096.     

An efficient sequential quadratic programming algorithm for nonlinear programming

In this paper, a new feasible sequential quadratic programming (FSQP) algorithm is proposed to solve the nonlinear programming, where a feasible descent direction is obtained by solving only one QP subproblem. In order to avoid Maratos effect, a high-order revised direction is computed by solving a linear system with involving some “active” constraints. The theoretical analysis shows that global and superlinear convergence can be deduced.     

非线性整数规划的一个近似算法

利用连续总体优化填充函数法的思想，本文设计了非线性整数规划的一个近似算法．首先，给出了非线性整数规划问题离散局部极小解的定义，设计了找离散局部极小解的局部搜索算法；其次，用所设计的局部搜索算法极小化填充函数来找比当前离散局部极小解好的解．本文的近似算法是直接法，且与连续总体优化的填充函数法相比，本文填充函数中的参数易于选取．数值试验表明，本文的近似算法是有效的．     

An infeasible nonmonotone SSLE algorithm for nonlinear programming

In this paper, we propose a new nonmonotone algorithm using the sequential systems of linear equations, which is an infeasible QP-free method. We use neither a penalty function nor a filter. Therefore, it is unnecessary to choose a problematic penalty parameter. The new algorithm only needs to solve three systems of linear equations with the same nonsingular coefficient matrix. Under some suitable conditions, the global convergence is established. Some numerical results are also presented.     

An algorithm for linearly constrained nonlinear programming problems

In this paper an algorithm for solving a linearly constrained nonlinear programming problem is developed. Given a feasible point, a correction vector is computed by solving a least distance programming problem over a polyhedral cone defined in terms of the gradients of the “almost” binding constraints. Mukai's approximate scheme for computing the step size is generalized to handle the constraints. This scheme provides an estimate for the step size based on a quadratic approximation of the function. This estimate is used in conjunction with Armijo line search to calculate a new point. It is shown that each accumulation point is a Kuhn-Tucker point to a slight perturbation of the original problem. Furthermore, under suitable second order optimality conditions, it is shown that eventually only one trial is needed to compute the step size.     

Global convergence of a derivative-free inexact restoration filter algorithm for nonlinear programming

In this work, we present an algorithm for solving constrained optimization problems that does not make explicit use of the objective function derivatives. The algorithm mixes an inexact restoration framework with filter techniques, where the forbidden regions can be given by the flat or slanting filter rule. Each iteration is decomposed into two independent phases: a feasibility phase which reduces an infeasibility measure without evaluations of the objective function, and an optimality phase which reduces the objective function value. As the derivatives of the objective function are not available, the optimality step is computed by derivative-free trust-region internal iterations. Any technique to construct the trust-region models can be used since the gradient of the model is a reasonable approximation of the gradient of the objective function at the current point. Assuming this and classical assumptions, we prove that the full steps are efficient in the sense that near a feasible nonstationary point, the decrease in the objective function is relatively large, ensuring the global convergence results of the algorithm. Numerical experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

A reduced Hessian algorithm with line search filter method for nonlinear programming

This paper proposes a line search filter reduced Hessian method for nonlinear equality constrained optimization. The feature of the presented algorithm is that the reduced Hessian method is used to produce a search direction, a backtracking line search procedure to generate step size, some filtered rules to determine step acceptance, second order correction technique to reduce infeasibility and overcome the Maratos effects. It is shown that this algorithm does not suffer from the Maratos effects by using second order correction step, and under mild assumptions fast convergence to second order sufficient local solutions is achieved. The numerical experiment is reported to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

An algorithm for the mixed-integer nonlinear bilevel programming problem

The bilevel programming problem (BLPP) is a two-person nonzero sum game in which play is sequential and cooperation is not permitted. In this paper, we examine a class of BLPPs where the leader controls a set of continuous and discrete variables and tries to minimize a convex nonlinear objective function. The follower's objective function is a convex quadratic in a continuous decision space. All constraints are assumed to be linear. A branch and bound algorithm is developed that finds global optima. The main purpose of this paper is to identify efficient branching rules, and to determine the computational burden of the numeric procedures. Extensive test results are reported. We close by showing that it is not readily possible to extend the algorithm to the more general case involving integer follower variables.This work was supported by a grant from the Advanced Research Program of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.     

An improved sequential quadratic programming algorithm for solving general nonlinear programming problems

In this paper, a class of general nonlinear programming problems with inequality and equality constraints is discussed. Firstly, the original problem is transformed into an associated simpler equivalent problem with only inequality constraints. Then, inspired by the ideals of the sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method and the method of system of linear equations (SLE), a new type of SQP algorithm for solving the original problem is proposed. At each iteration, the search direction is generated by the combination of two directions, which are obtained by solving an always feasible quadratic programming (QP) subproblem and a SLE, respectively. Moreover, in order to overcome the Maratos effect, the higher-order correction direction is obtained by solving another SLE. The two SLEs have the same coefficient matrices, and we only need to solve the one of them after a finite number of iterations. By a new line search technique, the proposed algorithm possesses global and superlinear convergence under some suitable assumptions without the strict complementarity. Finally, some comparative numerical results are reported to show that the proposed algorithm is effective and promising.     

Sequential penalty quadratic programming filter methods for nonlinear programming

Filter approaches, initially proposed by Fletcher and Leyffer in 2002, are recently attached importance to. If the objective function value or the constraint violation is reduced, this step is accepted by a filter, which is the basic idea of the filter. In this paper, the filter approach is employed in a sequential penalty quadratic programming (SlQP) algorithm which is similar to that of Yuan's. In every trial step, the step length is controlled by a trust region radius. In this work, our purpose is not to reduce the objective function and constraint violation. We reduce the degree of constraint violation and some function, and the function is closely related to the objective function. This algorithm requires neither Lagrangian multipliers nor the strong decrease condition. Meanwhile, in our SlQP filter there is no requirement of large penalty parameter. This method produces K-T points for the original problem.     

A filter inexact-restoration method for nonlinear programming

A new iterative algorithm based on the inexact-restoration (IR) approach combined with the filter strategy to solve nonlinear constrained optimization problems is presented. The high level algorithm is suggested by Gonzaga et al. (SIAM J. Optim. 14:646–669, 2003) but not yet implement—the internal algorithms are not proposed. The filter, a new concept introduced by Fletcher and Leyffer (Math. Program. Ser. A 91:239–269, 2002), replaces the merit function avoiding the penalty parameter estimation and the difficulties related to the nondifferentiability. In the IR approach two independent phases are performed in each iteration, the feasibility and the optimality phases. The line search filter is combined with the first one phase to generate a “more feasible” point, and then it is used in the optimality phase to reach an “optimal” point. Numerical experiences with a collection of AMPL problems and a performance comparison with IPOPT are provided.      

A heuristic algorithm for nonlinear programming

In this paper, a heuristic algorithm for nonlinear programming is presented. The algorithm uses two search directions, and the Hessian of the Lagrangian function is approximated with the BFGS secant update. We show that the sequence of iterates convergeq-superlinearly if the sequence of approximating matrices satisfies a particular condition. Numerical results are presented.     

A column generation algorithm for nonlinear programming

An algorithm using column generation and penalty function techniques is presented. A linear program with a uniformly bounded number of columns, similar to the restricted master in generalized programming, is used to reduce the number of constraints included in forming a penalty function. The penalty function is used as a Lagrangian in an unconstrained subproblem.This work was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant GS-3032.     

Global convergence of slanting filter methods for nonlinear programming

In this paper, we present a general algorithm for nonlinear programming which uses a slanting filter criterion for accepting the new iterates. Independently of how these iterates are computed, we prove that all accumulation points of the sequence generated by the algorithm are feasible. Computing the new iterates by the inexact restoration method, we prove stationarity of all accumulation points of the sequence.     

An algorithm for nonlinear optimization using linear programming and equality constrained subproblems

This paper describes an active-set algorithm for large-scale nonlinear programming based on the successive linear programming method proposed by Fletcher and Sainz de la Maza [10]. The step computation is performed in two stages. In the first stage a linear program is solved to estimate the active set at the solution. The linear program is obtained by making a linear approximation to the ₁ penalty function inside a trust region. In the second stage, an equality constrained quadratic program (EQP) is solved involving only those constraints that are active at the solution of the linear program. The EQP incorporates a trust-region constraint and is solved (inexactly) by means of a projected conjugate gradient method. Numerical experiments are presented illustrating the performance of the algorithm on the CUTEr [1, 15] test set.This author was supported by Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant F49620-00-1-0162, Army Research Office Grant DAAG55-98-1-0176, and National Science Foundation grant INT-9726199.This author was supported in part by the EPSRC grant GR/R46641.These authors were supported by National Science Foundation grants CCR-9987818, ATM-0086579 and CCR-0219438 and Department of Energy grant DE-FG02-87ER25047-A004.Report OTC 2002/4, Optimization Technology CenterTo Roger Fletcher, with respect and admiration     

An ordering (enumerative) algorithm for nonlinear 0-1 programming

In this paper, a new algorithm to solve a general 0–1 programming problem with linear objective function is developed. Computational experiences are carried out on problems where the constraints are inequalities on polynomials. The solution of the original problem is equivalent with the solution of a sequence of set packing problems with special constraint sets. The solution of these set packing problems is equivalent with the ordering of the binary vectors according to their objective function value. An algorithm is developed to generate this order in a dynamic way. The main tool of the algorithm is a tree which represents the desired order of the generated binary vectors. The method can be applied to the multi-knapsack type nonlinear 0–1 programming problem. Large problems of this type up to 500 variables have been solved.     

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.