The if-then Polytope: Conditional Relations over Multiple Sets of Binary Variables

Inspired by its occurrence as a substructure in a stochastic railway timetabling model, we study in this work a special case of the bipartite boolean quadric polytope. It models conditional relations across three sets of binary variables, where selections within two “if” sets imply a choice in a corresponding “then” set. We call this polytope … Read more

A Computational Study for Piecewise Linear Relaxations of Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programs

Solving mixed-integer nonlinear problems by means of piecewise linear relaxations can be a reasonable alternative to the commonly used spatial branch-and-bound. These relaxations have been modeled by various mixed-integer models in recent decades. The idea is to exploit the availability of mature solvers for mixed-integer problems. In this work, we compare different reformulations in terms … Read more

Enhancements of Discretization Approaches for Non-Convex Mixed-Integer Quadratically Constraint Quadratic Programming: Part II

Abstract. This is Part II of a study on mixed-integer programming (MIP) relaxation techniques for the solution of non-convex mixed-integer quadratically constrained quadratic programs (MIQCQPs). We set the focus on MIP relaxation methods for non-convex continuous variable products and extend the well-known MIP relaxation normalized multiparametric disaggregation technique (NMDT), applying a sophisticated discretization to both … Read more

Enhancements of Discretization Approaches for Non-Convex Mixed-Integer Quadratically Constraint Quadratic Programming: Part I

We study mixed-integer programming (MIP) relaxation techniques for the solution of non-convex mixed-integer quadratically constrained quadratic programs (MIQCQPs). We present MIP relaxation methods for non-convex continuous variable products. In Part I, we consider MIP relaxations based on separable reformulation. The main focus is the introduction of the enhanced separable MIP relaxation for non-convex quadratic products … Read more

An approximation algorithm for optimal piecewise linear approximations of bounded variable products

We investigate the optimal piecewise linear interpolation of the bivariate product xy over rectangular domains. More precisely, our aim is to minimize the number of simplices in the triangulation underlying the interpolation, while respecting a prescribed approximation error. First, we show how to construct optimal triangulations consisting of up to five simplices. Using these as … Read more

On Piecewise Linear Approximations of Bilinear Terms: Structural Comparison of Univariate and Bivariate Mixed-Integer Programming Formulations

Bilinear terms naturally appear in many optimization problems. Their inherent nonconvexity typically makes them challenging to solve. One approach to tackle this difficulty is to use bivariate piecewise linear approximations for each variable product, which can be represented via mixed-integer linear programming (MIP) formulations. Alternatively, one can reformulate the variable products as a sum of … Read more

Solving AC Optimal Power Flow with Discrete Decisions to Global Optimality

We present a solution framework for general alternating current optimal power flow (AC OPF) problems that include discrete decisions. The latter occur, for instance, in the context of the curtailment of renewables or the switching of power generation units and transmission lines. Our approach delivers globally optimal solutions and is provably convergent. We model AC … Read more

On Refinement Strategies for Solving MINLPs by Piecewise Linear Relaxations: A Generalized Red Refinement

We investigate the generalized red refinement for n-dimensional simplices that dates back to Freudenthal in a mixed-integer nonlinear program (MINLP) context. We show that the red refinement meets sufficient convergence conditions for a known MINLP solution framework that is essentially based on solving piecewise linear relaxations. In addition, we prove that applying this refinement procedure … Read more

Maximizing the storage capacity of gas networks: a global MINLP approach

In this paper, we study the transient optimization of gas networks, focusing in particular on maximizing the storage capacity of the network. We include nonlinear gas physics and active elements such as valves and compressors, which due to their switching lead to discrete decisions. The former is described by a model derived from the Euler … Read more

Solving Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programs using Adaptively Refined Mixed-Integer Linear Programs

We propose a method for solving mixed-integer nonlinear programs (MINLPs) to global optimality by discretization of occuring nonlinearities. The main idea is based on using piecewise linear functions to construct mixed-integer linear program (MIP) relaxations of the underlying MINLP. In order to find a global optimum of the given MINLP we develope an iterative algorithm … Read more