A Consensus-Based Alternating Direction Method for Mixed-Integer and PDE-Constrained Gas Transport Problems

We consider dynamic gas transport optimization problems, which lead to large-scale and nonconvex mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problems (MINLPs) on graphs. Usually, the resulting instances are too challenging to be solved by state-of-the-art MINLP solvers. In this paper, we use graph decompositions to obtain multiple optimization problems on smaller blocks, which can be solved in parallel … Read more

A Successive Linear Relaxation Method for MINLPs with Multivariate Lipschitz Continuous Nonlinearities

We present a novel method for mixed-integer optimization problems with multivariate and Lipschitz continuous nonlinearities. In particular, we do not assume that the nonlinear constraints are explicitly given but that we can only evaluate them and that we know their global Lipschitz constants. The algorithm is a successive linear relaxation method in which we alternate … Read more

Time-Domain Decomposition for Mixed-Integer Optimal Control Problems

We consider mixed-integer optimal control problems, whose optimality conditions involve global combinatorial optimization aspects for the corresponding Hamiltonian pointwise in time. We propose a time-domain decomposition, which makes this problem class accessible for mixed-integer programming using parallel-in-time direct discretizations. The approach is based on a decomposition of the optimality system and the interpretation of the … Read more

Time-Domain Decomposition for Optimal Control Problems Governed by Semilinear Hyperbolic Systems with Mixed Two-Point Boundary Conditions

In this article, we continue our work (Krug et al., 2021) on time-domain decomposition of optimal control problems for systems of semilinear hyperbolic equations in that we now consider mixed two-point boundary value problems and provide an in-depth well-posedness analysis. The more general boundary conditions significantly enlarge the scope of applications, e.g., to hyperbolic problems … Read more

Time-Domain Decomposition for Optimal Control Problems Governed by Semilinear Hyperbolic Systems

In this article, we extend the time-domain decomposition method described by Lagnese and Leugering (2003) to semilinear optimal control problems for hyperbolic balance laws with spatio-temporal varying coefficients. We provide the design of the iterative method applied to the global first-order optimality system, prove its convergence, and derive an a posteriori error estimate. The analysis … Read more

Nonlinear Optimization of District Heating Networks

We develop a complementarity-constrained nonlinear optimization model for the time-dependent control of district heating networks. The main physical aspects of water and heat flow in these networks are governed by nonlinear and hyperbolic 1d partial differential equations. In addition, a pooling-type mixing model is required at the nodes of the network to treat the mixing … Read more