Parallel distributed-memory simplex for large-scale stochastic LP problems

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

Many planning problems involve choosing a set of optimal decisions for a system in the face of uncertainty of elements that may play a central role in the way the system is analyzed and operated. During the past decade, there has been a renewed interest in the modelling, analysis, and solution of such problems due to a remarkable development of both new theoretical results and novel computational techniques in stochastic optimization. A prominent approach is to develop upper and lower bounding approximations to the problem along with procedures to sharpen bounds until an acceptable tolerance is satisfied. The contributions of this dissertation are concerned with the latter approach. The thesis first studies the stochastic linear programming problem with randomness in both the objective coefficients and the constraints. A convex concave saddle property of the value function is utilized to derive new bounding techniques which generalize previously known results. These approximations require discretizing bounded domains of the random variables in such a way that tight upper and lower bounds result. Such techniques will prove attractive with the recent advances in large scale linear programming. The above results are also extended to obtain new upper and lower bounds when the domains of random variables are unbounded. While these bounds are tight, the approximating models are large-scale deterministic linear programs. In particular, with a proposed order-cone decomposition for the domains, these linear programs are well-structured, thus enabling one to use efficient techniques for solution, such as parallel computation. The thesis next considers convex stochastic programs. Using aggregation concepts from the deterministic literature, new bounds are developed for the problem which are computable using standard convex programming algorithms. Finally, the discussion is focused on a stochastic convex program arising in a certain resource allocation problem. Exploiting the problem structure, bounds are developed via the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. Rather than discretizing domains, these approximations advocate replacing difficult multidimensional integrals by a series of simple univariate integrals. Such practice allows one to preserve differentiability properties so that smooth convex programming methods can be applied for solution.

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we consider a Fuzzy Stochastic Linear Fractional Programming problem (FSLFP). In this problem, the coefficients and scalars in the objective function are the triangular fuzzy number and technological coefficients and the quantities on the right side of the constraints are fuzzy random variables with the specific distribution. Here we change an FSLFP problem to an equivalent deterministic Multi-objective Linear Fractional Programming (MOLFP) problem. Then by using Fuzzy Mathematical programming approach transformed MOLFP problem is reduced single objective Linear programming (LP) problem. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Elementary Linear Programming with Applications

Linear programming (LP) is an important field of optimization. Even though, interior point methods are polynomial algorithms, many LP practical problems are solved more efficiently by the primal and dual revised simplex methods (RSM); however, RSM has a poor performance in hard LP problems (HLPP) as in the Klee-Minty Cubes problem. Among LP methods, the hybrid method known as Simplex-Genetic (SG) is very robust to solve HLPP. The objective of SG is to obtain the optimal solution of a HLPP, taking advantages from each one of the combined methods -a genetic algorithm (GA) and the classical primal RSM-. In this paper a new SG method named Improved Simplex Genetic Method (ISG) is presented. ISG combines a GA (with special genetic operators) with both primal and dual RSM. Numerical experimentation using some instances of the Klee-Minty cubes problem shows that ISG has a better performance than both RSM and SG.

An experimental spacecraft control system will be incorporated into the Space Shuttle flight software and exercised during a forthcoming mission to evaluate its performance and handling qualities. The control system incorporates a 'phase space' control law to generate rate change requests and a linear programming jet select to compute jet firings. Posed as a linear programming problem, jet selection must represent the rate change request as a linear combination of jet acceleration vectors where the coefficients are the jet firing times, while minimizing the fuel expended in satisfying that request. This problem is solved in real time using a revised Simplex algorithm. In order to implement the jet selection algorithm in the Shuttle flight control computer, it was modified to accommodate certain practical features of the Shuttle such as limited computer throughput, lengthy firing times, and a large number of control jets. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first such application of linear programming. It was made possible by careful consideration of the jet selection problem in terms of the properties of linear programming and the Simplex algorithm. These modifications to the jet select algorithm may by useful for the design of reaction controlled spacecraft.

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.

Linear programming algorithms have been widely used in Decision Support Systems. These systems have incorporated linear programming algorithms for the solution of the given problems. Yet, the special structure of each linear problem may take advantage of different linear programming algorithms or different techniques used in these algorithms. This paper proposes a web-based DSS that assists decision makers in the solution of linear programming problems with a variety of linear programming algorithms and techniques. Two linear programming algorithms have been included in the DSS: (i) revised simplex algorithm and (ii) exterior primal simplex algorithm. Furthermore, ten scaling techniques, five basis update methods and eight pivoting rules have been incorporated in the DSS. All linear programming algorithms and methods have been implemented using MATLAB and converted to Java classes using MATLAB Builder JA, while the web interface of the DSS has been designed using Java Server Pages.

The simplex method is frequently the most efficient method of solving linear programming (LP) problems. This paper reviews previous attempts to parallelise the simplex method in relation to efficient serial simplex techniques and the nature of practical LP problems. For the major challenge of solving general large sparse LP problems, there has been no parallelisation of the simplex method that offers significantly improved performance over a good serial implementation. However, there has been some success in developing parallel solvers for LPs that are dense or have particular structural properties. As an outcome of the review, this paper identifies scope for future work towards the goal of developing parallel implementations of the simplex method that are of practical value.

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

In this paper, we propose a new model for linear fractional programming problem with absolute value functions. The major contribution of this paper is that transformation of linear fractional programming problem into separate linear programming problems with some theorems and then solution of these problems by popular algorithm. This work also used to simplex type algorithms to arrive at an optimal solution for a linear programming problem with absolute value. Moreover, we compare this method with an existing method. Numerical experiments are also given to illustrate the assertions.

This article addresses a special class of non-linear programming problems, viz., linear fractional programming problems having multiple objectives. In solving the real-life linear fractional optimization problems, the ambiguity and hesitation in the decision are inherent and ever-present, therefore, it is perfectly viable to formulate and solve these optimization models using the intuitionistic fuzzy environment. The purpose of this study is to propose a simple and computationally efficient approach to obtain the solution of multiple objective linear fractional programming problems having all the decision variables and parameters expressed in terms of triangular intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. The proposed solution algorithm is primarily based on the goal programming approach, fuzzy-based linearization technique, and a membership function strategy. The original linear fractional programming problem is first converted to its equivalent deterministic/crisp multi-objective linear fractional optimization problem using the weighted goal programming methodology along with the linear membership technique to resolve the intuitionistic fuzzy constraints into the crisp one. Finally, the variable transformation technique for the under- and over-deviational variables of the goal programming model is employed to linearize all the fractions involved in the problem so as to convert the original problem to an equivalent linear optimization problem. Further, this linear programming problem can be solved using any available commercial packages. Moreover, a numerical illustration is provided to demonstrate the steps of the proposed technique followed by the analysis and solution of an E-education set-up problem. The discussion and comparisons of the practical case establish the relevancy and usefulness of the proposed model.

In this paper, we focus on large-scale multiobjective fuzzy linear programming problems with the block angular structure and examine the efficiency of the Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition method in the interactive fuzzy satisficing method proposed by M. Sakawa et al. After overviewing the Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition method (1961) and the interactive fuzzy satisficing method, three-objective linear programming problems with 15 coupling constraints are considered in order to show the efficiency of the Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition method over the revised simplex method. Through a lot of computational experiments on workstation for numerical examples with both 50 and 200 variables, the advantages of the Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition method are discussed with respect to processing time and required memory storage.

In this paper, we propose a method of solving the fully fuzzy linear fractional programming problems, Express all the parameters and variables are triangular fuzzy numbers. Convert all the triangular fuzzy numbers in their parametric form, we convert the fractional programming problem in to a single objective linear programming problem in parametric form. We put new fuzzy arithmetic and fuzzy ranking, we obtain the optimal solution the given fully fuzzy linear fractional programming problem without converting to its equivalent crisp linear programming problem. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method.

Ramp metering is a motorway control method to avoid onset congestion through limiting the access of ramp inflows into the main road of the motorway. The optimization model of ramp metering is developed based upon cell transmission model (CTM). With the piecewise linear structure of CTM, the corresponding motorway traffic optimization problem can be formulated as a linear programming (LP) problem. It is known that LP problem can be solved by established solution algorithms such as SIMPLEX or interior-point methods for the global optimal solution. The commercial software (CPLEX) is adopted in this study to solve the LP problem within reasonable computational time. The concept is illustrated through a case study of the United Kingdom M25 Motorway. The optimal solution provides useful insights and guidances on how to manage motorway traffic in order to maximize the corresponding efficiency.