Essays on bounding stochastic programming problems

Using different dominance criteria in stochastic fuzzy linear multiobjective programming: A case of fuzzy weighted objective function

Contributors

A technique is developed for finding a closed form expression for the cumulative distribution function of the maximum value of the objective function in a stochastic linear programming problem, where either the objective function coefficients or the right hand side coefficients are continuous random vectors with known probability distributions. This is the “wait and see” problem of stochastic linear programming. Explicit results for the distribution problem are extremely difficult to obtain; indeed, previous results are known only if the right hand side coefficients have an exponential distribution [1]. To date, no explicit results have been obtained for stochastic c, and no new results of any form have appeared since the 1970’s. In this paper, we obtain the first results for stochastic c, and new explicit results if b an c are stochastic vectors with an exponential, gamma, uniform, or triangle distribution. A transformation is utilized that greatly reduces computational time.

We formulate and discuss a model of two-period stochastic optimization which allows for the possibility of the probability distribution over a non-empty finite set of states of nature-exactly one member of which will be realized in the future period- to depend on the control variable chosen in the initial period. In the second and terminal period, the decision maker chooses the value of a control variable vector which along with the control variable vector chosen in the initial period, solve a linear programming problem. The parameters of the linear programming are determined by an uncertain state of nature that is realized at the beginning of the terminal period. In order to obtain specific results, we assume that in the initial period, the decision maker can choose any one alternative from a finite set of alternatives, each such alternative being “a system of linear inequality constraints.” It is further assumed that solution sets of any two different systems are mutually disjoint and the probability distribution of the uncertain components of the state variables that is realized in the second period is determined by the system of linear inequalities chosen in the initial period. We refer to the overall problem as a “two-period stochastic linear programming game”. Our first result for a two-period stochastic linear programming game is that the optimal value for such a game as well as the optimal solutions for each of the finite number of stochastic linear programs can be found by solving a linear programming problem and our second result in this context says that the (optimal) solution for the dual of this linear programming contains a component that determines “at least one” stochastic linear programming problem any solution of which when substituted in its objective function, yields the optimal value of the two-period stochastic linear programming game. There is no need to solve any other subproblem or the primal problem to derive the optimal value of the game. AMS Classifications: 90C05, 90C15, 90C39, 90C46, 91A65 JEL Classifications: C61, C79, D81

We present a parallelization of the revised simplex method for large extensive forms of two-stage stochastic linear programming (LP) problems. These problems have been considered too large to solve with the simplex method; instead, decomposition approaches based on Benders decomposition or, more recently, interior-point methods are generally used. However, these approaches do not provide optimal basic solutions, which allow for efficient hot-starts (e.g., in a branch-and-bound context) and can provide important sensitivity information. Our approach exploits the dual block-angular structure of these problems inside the linear algebra of the revised simplex method in a manner suitable for high-performance distributed-memory clusters or supercomputers. While this paper focuses on stochastic LPs, the work is applicable to all problems with a dual block-angular structure. Our implementation is competitive in serial with highly efficient sparsity-exploiting simplex codes and achieves significant relative speed-ups when run in parallel. Additionally, very large problems with hundreds of millions of variables have been successfully solved to optimality. This is the largest-scale parallel sparsity-exploiting revised simplex implementation that has been developed to date and the first truly distributed solver. It is built on novel analysis of the linear algebra for dual block-angular LP problems when solved by using the revised simplex method and a novel parallel scheme for applying product-form updates.

This paper focuses on solving two-stage stochastic mixed integer programs (SMIPs) with general mixed integer decision variables in both stages. We develop a decomposition algorithm in which the first stage approximation is solved using a branch-and-bound tree with nodes inheriting Benders' cuts that are valid for their ancestor nodes. In addition, we develop two closely related convexification schemes which use multi-term disjunctive cuts to obtain approximations of the second stage mixed-integer programs. We prove that the proposed methods are finitely convergent. One of the main advantages of our decomposition scheme is that we use a Benders-based branch-and-cut approach in which linear programming approximations are strengthened sequentially. Moreover as in many decomposition schemes, these subproblems can be solved in parallel. We also illustrate these algorithms using several variants of an SMIP example from the literature, and present preliminary evidence of the scalability of these algorithms as the number of scenarios increases.

For a class of stochastic linear bilevel programming problem, we firstly transform it into a deterministic linear bilevel covariance programming problem. Then, the deterministic bilevel covariance programming problem is solved by backpropagation artificial neural network based on elite particle swam optimization algorithm (BPANN-PSO). Finally, we perform the simulation experiments and the results show that the computational efficiency of the proposed algorithm has a potential upside compared with the classical algorithm.

The aim of this paper is to derive a method for solving a stochastic linear programming problem with Cauchy distribution. Assuming that the coefficients are distributed as Cauchy random variables, the stochastic linear programming is converted to a deterministic non-linear programming problem by a suitable transformation. Then an algorithm can be used to solve the resulting deterministic problem .A numerical example can be considered to illustrate the above methodology.

The self Help Group (SHG) is group of rural poor who have organized themselves into a group for eradicationof poverty. The members of the group belong to families below the poverty line. This will help the families of occupational groups like agricultural labourers, marginal farmers, designers and artisans marginally above the poverty line, or who may have been excluded from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list to become members of the Self Help Group. A self help group consists of two categories. One named as magalier thittam and another is non- magalier thittam. The factors of Self help group categories are random in nature. These factors can be handled using stochastic linear programming problem (SLPP). Here the data is collected from Tuticorin district. The optimization technique such as two stage programming and chance constrained programming can be adopted for SLPP. In this paper chance constrained programming (CPP) is used to obtain optimal solution.

A general concept for solving linear multicriteria programming problems with crisp, fuzzy or stochastic values

Raw-materials base (hereinafter RMB) is one of the largest industries for financial investments in Russia. There are various mathematical descriptions for the development of regions with resource-based economy. Earlier in [1] the researchers considered the model based on bilevel integer stochastic programming problems with Boolean variables. This paper proposes a new approach to public-private partnership modelling, including a bilevel linear stochastic programming problem. This model assumes that budget constraints of the state and the investor can vary in a random manner with a specific probability distribution. We put forward two methods to solve this problem: problem’s reduction to the deterministic bilevel one and formulation of deterministic problems sequence with help of Monte Carlo methods. In order to solve deterministic problems of integer programming, we suggest two approaches: direct enumeration and heuristic “Game” approach. The numerical experiments for proposed algorithms validation are conducted on the basis of actual data of Zabaykalsky Krai development. Multiple input parameters of the model vary in these experiments. Finally, we present a brief analysis of the obtained solutions to the stochastic linear programming problems with Boolean variables.

The increased water demand and the increased capital construction costs of water resource development projects force engineers and water planners to utilize efficiently the existing and proposed water resources systems. Hence, it is considered necessary to find the optimum real time operating rules for systems of multiple reservoirs.Stochastic dynamic programming (SDP) has been used as the tool for deriving the real time operating rules for a system of multiple reservoirs, in preference to simulation analysis and linear programming. This is because the operation of the storages is considered as a sequential decision problem and dynamic programming is well suited to handle sequential, multi-period type decision problems. Further, the stochastic nature of streamflow is considered explicitly through a multivariate distribution for streamflow. The method theoretically produces the global optimum solution.The computational difficulties in terms of computer time and memory space have prohibited the realistic application of this method to systems of multiple reservoirs in the past. In this study, two methods have been introduced to reduce the computational difficulties of the method, thus making SDP more attractive to use in the derivation of the real time operating rules for a system of multiple reservoirs.The first method, the assumption of cross correlation of streamflow, reduces the number of states in the SDP method which reduces computer time and memory space. Further, it reduces the number of conditional probability estimates of streamflow which are used in recursive relation of the SDP algorithm. The second method, the “corridor” approach, reduces computer time involved in the SDP method by eliminating the computation of infeasible and/or inferior (suboptimal) solutions. These two methods have resulted in significant savings in the computer effort of the SDP method.The conditional probabilities of streamflow are computed by considering the hypervolume under the conditional probability density function between the integration limits using the computationally efficient Gaussian Legendre quadrature method. The conditional probability density function is derived from the historical streamflow data.Real time operating rules are expressed as a function of the storage volume(s) at the beginning of the current time interval and the forecast inflow into the storage(s) during the current time interval.The Melbourne water supply system is used as the example. The derived operating rules have been tested by operating a simulation model and the conclusion is made that the SDP method is a satisfactory technique for objectively deriving real time operating rules for a system of multiple reservoirs.Finally, a combined stochastic dynamic programming – statistical disaggregation approach is introduced to determine the real time operating rules for a system of multiple reservoirs where operational data are available. Releases from individual storages are a function of the total system storage volume and inflow. The method uses SDP to determine the release rules from the equivalent single reservoir of the multiple reservoir system; these releases are then disaggregated to individual releases using the statistical release disaggregation model whose parameters are derived from the historical operational data. The approach was used to derive real time operating rules for the Melbourne water supply system and the operating rules were validated using a simulation model of the system.

A novel microgrid support management system based on stochastic mixed-integer linear programming

In this dissertation we develop numerical algorithms and software tools to facilitate parallel solutions of nonlinear programming (NLP) problems. In particular, we address large-scale, block-structured problems with an intrinsic decomposable configuration. These problems arise in a great number of engineering applications, including parameter estimation, optimal control, network optimization, and stochastic programming. The structure of these problems can be leveraged by optimization solvers to accelerate solutions and overcome memory limitations, and we propose variants to two classes of optimization algorithms: augmented Lagrangian (AL) schemes and Schur-complement interior-point methods. The convergence properties of augmented Lagrangian decomposition schemes like the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) and progressive hedging (PH) are well established for convex optimization but convergence guarantees in non-convex settings are still poorly understood. In practice, however, ADMM and PH often perform satisfactorily in complex non-convex NLPs. In this work, we study connections between the method of multipliers (MM), ADMM, and PH to derive benchmarking metrics that explain why PH and ADMM work in practice. We illustrate the concepts using challenging dynamic optimization problems. Our exposition seeks to establish more formalism in benchmarking ADMM, PH, and AL schemes and to motivate algorithmic improvements. The effectiveness of nonlinear interior-point solvers for solving large-scale problems relies quite heavily on the solution of the underlying linear algebra systems. The schur-complement decomposition is very effective for parallelizing the solution of linear systems with modest coupling. However, for systems with large number of coupling variables the schur-complement method does not scale favorably. We implement an approach that uses a Krylov solver (GMRES) preconditioned with ADMM to solve block-structured linear systems that arise in the interior-point method. We show that this ADMM-GMRES approach overcomes the well-known scalability issues of Schur decomposition. One important drawback of using decomposition approaches like ADMM and PH is their convergence rate. Unlike Schur-complement interior-point algorithms that have super-linear convergence, augmented Lagrangian approaches typically exhibit linear and sublinear rates. We exploit connections between ADMM and the Schur-complement decomposition to derive an accelerated version of ADMM. Specifically, we study the effectiveness of performing a Newton-Raphson algorithm to compute multiplier estimates for augmented Lagrangian methods. We demonstrate using two-stage stochastic programming problems that our multiplier update achieves convergence in fewer iterations for MM on general nonlinear problems. In the case of ADMM, the newton update significantly reduces the number of subproblem solves for convex quadratic programs (QPs). Moreover, we show that using newton multiplier updates makes the method robust to the selection of the penalty parameter. Traditionally, state-of-the-art optimization solvers are implemented in low-level programming languages. In our experience, the development of decomposition algorithms in these frameworks is challenging. They present a steep learning curve and can slow the development and testing of new numerical algorithms. To mitigate these challenges, we developed PyNumero, a new open source framework implemented in Python and C++. The package seeks to facilitate development of optimization algorithms for large-scale optimization within a high-level programming environment while at the same time minimizing the computational burden of using Python. The efficiency of PyNumero is illustrated by implementing algorithms for problems arising in stochastic programming and optimal control. Timing results are presented for both serial and parallel implementations. Our computational studies demonstrate that with the appropriate balance between compiled code and Python, efficient implementations of optimization algorithms are achievable in these high-level languages.

Stochastic optimization models have been extensively applied to financial portfolios and have proven their effectiveness in asset and asset-liability management; hardly however they have been applied to decision universe including not only financial but also derivatives written on the underlying, derivatives such as options or futures with their dedicated risk profiles and associated modeling complexities. Including options in the portfolio gives us the opportunity to hedge the underlying and to speculate on them to increase the profit potential given a certain risk level. The modeling of options in multistage stochastic programming framework would have many advantages, for instance, a put option can be used for insuring a portfolio against any downside movement in the market, high volatility in options prices is risky but rewarding if captured accurately, in-the-money call/put options at maturity can be used to buy/sell the underlying security at a price lower/higher than the market price, optimally increasing and reducing inventory. We present here multistage models to include cash and physical settled call and put options in a portfolio along with other asset classes.