A deterministic global optimization method is developed for a class of discontinuous functions. McCormick’s method to obtain relaxations of nonconvex functions is extended to discontinuous factorable functions by representing a discontinuity with a step function. The properties of the...

This article presents an analysis of the convergence order of Taylor models and McCormick-Taylor models, namely Taylor models with McCormick relaxations as the remainder bounder, for factorable functions. Building upon the analysis of McCormick relaxations by Bompadre and Mitsos (J Glob Optim...

In continuous branch-and-bound algorithms, a very large number of boxes near global minima may be visited prior to termination. This so-called cluster problem (J Glob Optim 5(3):253–265, <CitationRef CitationID="CR4">1994</CitationRef>) is revisited and a new analysis is presented. Previous results are confirmed, which state that at...</citationref>

Hammerstein–Wiener models constitute a significant class of block-structured dynamic models, as they approximate process nonlinearities on the basis of input–output data without requiring identification of a full nonlinear process model. Optimization problems with Hammerstein–Wiener models...

This paper presents some applications of the canonical dual theory in optimal control problems. The analytic solutions of several nonlinear and nonconvex problems are investigated by global optimizations. It turns out that the backward differential flow defined by the KKT equation may reach the...

In this paper, we propose a new deterministic global optimization method for solving nonlinear optimal control problems in which the constraint conditions of differential equations and the performance index are expressed as polynomials of the state and control functions. The nonlinear optimal...

Bilinear terms naturally appear in many optimization problems. Their inherent non-convexity 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...

We propose an exact global solution method for bilevel mixed-integer optimization problems with lower-level integer variables and including nonlinear terms such as, e.g., products of upper-level and lower-level variables. Problems of this type are extremely challenging as a single-level...

We introduce a generalization of separability for global optimization, presented in the context of a simple branch and bound method. Our results apply to continuously differentiable objective functions implemented as computer programs. A significant search space reduction can be expected to...