Motivated by telecommunications applications we investigate the minimum spanning tree problem where edge costs are interval numbers. Since minimum spanning trees depend on the realization of the edge costs, we deÿne the robust spanning tree problem to hedge against the worst case contingency, and present a mixed integer programming formulation of the problem. We also deÿne some useful optimality concepts, and present characterizations for these entities leading to polynomial time recognition algorithms. These entities are then used to preprocess a given graph with interval data prior to the solution of the robust spanning tree problem. Computational results show that these preprocessing procedures are quite e ective in reducing the time to compute a robust spanning tree.

Traffic management during an evacuation and the decision of where to locate the shelters are of critical importance to the performance of an evacuation plan. From the evacuation management authority's point of view, the desirable goal is to minimize the total evacuation time by computing a system optimum (SO). However, evacuees may not be willing to take long routes enforced on them by a SO solution; but they may consent to taking routes with lengths not longer than the shortest path to the nearest shelter site by more than a tolerable factor. We develop a model that optimally locates shelters and assigns evacuees to the nearest shelter sites by assigning them to shortest paths, shortest and nearest with a given degree of tolerance, so that the total evacuation time is minimized. As the travel time on a road segment is often modeled as a nonlinear function of the flow on the segment, the resulting model is a nonlinear mixed integer programming model. We develop a solution method that can handle practical size problems using second order cone programming techniques. Using our model, we investigate the importance of the number and locations of shelter sites and the trade-off between efficiency and fairness. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

The hub location problem with single assignment is the problem of locating hubs and assigning the terminal nodes to hubs in order to minimize the cost of hub installation and the cost of routing the traffic in the network. There may also be capacity restrictions on the amount of traffic that can transit by hubs. The aim of this paper is to investigate polyhedral properties of these problems and to develop a branch and cut algorithm based on these results. © Springer-Verlag 2004

We consider the vehicle routing problem where one can choose among vehicles with different costs and capacities to serve the trips. We develop six different formulations: the first four based on Miller-Tucker-Zemlin constraints and the last two based on flows. We compare the linear programming bounds of these formulations. We derive valid inequalities and lift some of the constraints to improve the lower bounds. We generalize and strengthen subtour elimination and generalized large multistar inequalities.

Shelters are safe facilities that protect a population from possible damaging effects of a disaster. For that reason, shelter location and traffic assignment decisions should be considered simultaneously for an efficient evacuation plan. In addition, as it is very difficult to anticipate the exact place, time, and scale of a disaster, one needs to take into account the uncertainty in evacuation demand, the disruption/degradation of evacuation road network structure, and the disruption in shelters. In this study, we propose an exact algorithm based on Benders decomposition to solve a scenario-based two-stage stochastic evacuation planning model that optimally locates shelters and that assigns evacuees to shelters and routes in an efficient and fair way to minimize the expected total evacuation time. The second stage of the model is a second-order cone programming problem, and we use duality results for second-order cone programming in a Benders decomposition setting. We solve practical-size problems with up to 1,000 scenarios in moderate CPU times. We investigate methods such as employing a multicut strategy, deriving Pareto-optimal cuts, and using a preemptive priority multiobjective program to enhance the proposed algorithm. We also use a cutting plane algorithm to solve the dual subproblem since it contains a constraint for each possible path. Computational results confirm the efficiency of our algorithms.

a b s t r a c tWe study the problem of designing a three level hub network where the top level consists of a complete network connecting the so-called central hubs and the second and third levels are unions of star networks connecting the remaining hubs to central hubs and the demand centers to hubs and central hubs, respectively. The problem is to decide on the locations of a predetermined number of hubs and central hubs and the connections in order to minimize the total routing cost in the resulting network. This problem includes the classical p-hub median problem as a special case. We also consider a version of this problem where service quality considerations are incorporated through delivery time restrictions. We propose mixed integer programming models for these two problems and report the outcomes of a computational study using the CAB data and the Turkey data.

We study the vehicle routing problem with roaming delivery locations in which the goal is to find a least-cost set of delivery routes for a fleet of capacitated vehicles and in which a customer order has to be delivered to the trunk of the customer's car during the time that the car is parked at one of the locations in the (known) customer's travel itinerary. We formulate the problem as a set-covering problem and develop a branch-and-price algorithm for its solution. The algorithm can also be used for solving a more general variant in which a hybrid delivery strategy is considered that allows a delivery to either a customer's home or to the trunk of the customer's car. We evaluate the effectiveness of the many algorithmic features incorporated in the algorithm in an extensive computational study and analyze the benefits of these innovative delivery strategies. The computational results show that employing the hybrid delivery strategy results in average cost savings of nearly 20% for the instances in our test set.

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Hierarchical multimodal hub location problem is a cost-minimizing hub covering problem\ud where two types of hubs and hub links, accounting for ground and air transportation, are to\ud be established, while ensuring time-definite deliveries. We propose a mixed-integer programming\ud formulation and perform a comprehensive sensitivity analysis on the Turkish\ud network. We show that the locations of airport hubs are less sensitive to the cost parameters\ud compared to the locations of ground hubs and it is possible to improve the service\ud quality at not much additional cost in the resulting multimodal networks. Our methodology\ud provides the means for a detailed trade-off analysis.\ud 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved