Optimization Characteristics

Introduction

Although the material in this chapter is not specific to Analytica, it should give users a foundation of knowledge sufficient to understand the basic characteristics of an optimization problem and to understand the mathematical characteristics that define different optimization types.

Parts of an optimization problem: General Description

The first step in performing an optimization is to formulate the problem appropriately. An optimization problem is defined by four parts: a set of decision variables, an objective function, bounds on the decision variables, and constraints. The formulation looks like this.