A Flexible Iterative Solver for Nonconvex, Equality-Constrained Quadratic Subproblems

We present an iterative primal-dual solver for nonconvex equality-constrained quadratic optimization subproblems. The solver constructs the primal and dual trial steps from the subspace generated by the generalized Arnoldi procedure used in flexible GMRES (FGMRES). This permits the use of a wide range of preconditioners for the primal-dual system. In contrast with FGMRES, the proposed … Read more

An Inertia-Free Filter Line-Search Algorithm for Large-Scale Nonlinear Programming

We present a filter line-search algorithm that does not require inertia information about the linear system to ensure global convergence. The proposed approach performs curvature tests along the search step to ensure descent. This feature permits more modularity in the linear algebra, enabling the use of a wider range of iterative and decomposition strategies. We … Read more

Topology Optimization for Magnetic Circuits dedicated to Electric Propulsion

Abstract—In this paper, we present a method to solve inverse problems of electromagnetic circuit design which are formulated as a topology optimization problem. Indeed, by imposing the magnetic field inside a region, we search a best material distribution into variable domains. In order to perform this, we minimize the quadratic error between the prescribed magnetic … Read more

Optimal control of leukemic cell population dynamics

We are interested in optimizing the co-administration of two drugs for some acute myeloid leukemias (AML), and we are looking for in vitro protocols as a first step. This issue can be formulated as an optimal control problem. The dynamics of leukemic cell populations in culture is given by age-structured partial differential equations, which can … Read more

Fabrication-Adaptive Optimization, with an Application to Photonic Crystal Design

It is often the case that the computed optimal solution of an optimization problem cannot be implemented directly, irrespective of data accuracy, due to either (i) technological limitations (such as physical tolerances of machines or processes), (ii) the deliberate simplification of a model to keep it tractable (by ignoring certain types of constraints that pose … Read more

Adaptive Observations And Multilevel Optimization In Data Assimilation

We propose to use a decomposition of large-scale incremental four dimensional (4D-Var) data assimilation problems in order to make their numerical solution more efficient. This decomposition is based on exploiting an adaptive hierarchy of the observations. Starting with a low-cardinality set and the solution of its corresponding optimization problem, observations are adaptively added based on … Read more

Conjugate-gradients versus multigrid solvers for diffusion-based correlation models in data assimilation

This paper provides a theoretical and experimental comparison between conjugate-gradients and multigrid, two iterative schemes for solving linear systems, in the context of applying diffusion-based correlation models in data assimilation. In this context, a large number of such systems has to be (approximately) solved if the implicit mode is chosen for integrating the involved diffusion … Read more

Global Stability Analysis of Fluid Flows using Sum-of-Squares

This paper introduces a new method for proving global stability of fluid flows through the construction of Lyapunov functionals. For finite dimensional approximations of fluid systems, we show how one can exploit recently developed optimization methods based on sum-of-squares decomposition to construct a polynomial Lyapunov function. We then show how these methods can be extended … Read more

Preconditioning and Globalizing Conjugate Gradients in Dual Space for Quadratically Penalized Nonlinear-Least Squares Problems

When solving nonlinear least-squares problems, it is often useful to regularize the problem using a quadratic term, a practice which is especially common in applications arising in inverse calculations. A solution method derived from a trust-region Gauss-Newton algorithm is analyzed for such applications, where, contrary to the standard algorithm, the least-squares subproblem solved at each … Read more

Quest for the control on the second order derivatives: topology optimization with functional includes the state’s curvature

Many physical phenomena, governed by partial differential equations (PDEs), are second order in nature. This makes sense to pose the control on the second order derivatives of the field solution, in addition to zero and first order ones, to consistently control the underlaying process. However, this type of control is nontrivial and to the best … Read more