Introduction to Combinatoria; Optimization Pardalos

Intended for advanced undergraduate/graduate students as well as scientists and engineers, this textbook presents a multi-disciplinary view of optimization, providing a thorough examination of algorithms, methods, techniques, and tools from diverse areas of optimization.

The book begins with an easy-to-read introduction to the concepts associated with the creation of optimization models for production planning. These concepts are then applied to well-known planning models, namely mrp and MRP II.

This book is motivated largely by a desire to solve shape optimization prob­ lems that arise in applications, particularly in structural mechanics and in the optimal control of distributed parameter systems. Many such problems can be formulated as the minimization of functionals defined over a class of admissible domains. Shape optimization is quite indispensable in the design and construction of industrial structures. For example, aircraft and spacecraft have to satisfy, at the same time, very strict criteria on mechanical performance while weighing as little as possible. The shape optimization problem for such a structure consists in finding a geometry of the structure which minimizes a given functional (e. g. such as the weight of the structure) and yet simultaneously satisfies specific constraints (like thickness, strain energy, or displacement bounds). The geometry of the structure can be considered as a given domain in the three-dimensional Euclidean space.