On tackling reverse convex constraints for non-overlapping of unequal circles

We study the unequal circle-circle non-overlapping constraints, a form of reverse convex constraints that often arise in optimization models for cutting and packing applications. The feasible region induced by the intersection of circle-circle non-overlapping constraints is highly non-convex, and standard approaches to construct convex relaxations for spatial branch-and-bound global optimization of such models typically yield … Read more

Packing circles in a square: a theoretical comparison of various convexification techniques

We consider the problem of packing congruent circles with the maximum radius in a unit square. As a mathematical program, this problem is a notoriously difficult nonconvex quadratically constrained optimization problem which possesses a large number of local optima. We study several convexification techniques for the circle packing problem, including polyhedral and semi-definite relaxations and … Read more