Minimization Active Set Methods

Examples of this chapter can be found in the Vol3 Chapterl3 directory in the WileyVol3.zip file available at www.chem.polimi.it/homes/gbuzzi. 

This chapter covers an important class of methods used to solve constrained optimization problems 

The methods described in this chapter are based on the methodology of splitting inequality constraints into active and passive constraints and iteratively solving a problem in which all the constraints are considered equality constraints. 

Methods that exploit the methodology to split inequality constraints into active and 

Many of them share another feature based on a simple idea. 

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ABSTRACT Nuclear power plant includes multiple components and systems, which are maintained in order to limit or prevent failures resulting from the ageing and deterioration. These components and systems are imavailable during the maintenance activities. The unavailability of the safety systems results in increased risk of the nuclear power plant. A method for optimization of the maintenance activities in the nuclear power plant applying heuristics algorithms is presented. The maintenance optimization is modelled as a combinatorial problem. The minimal cut sets identified in the prohahiUstic safety assessment are used for assessment of the risk in the optimization function. The periodically tested component model is apphed for the modelling of the components included in the maintenance. The developed method is apphed on test models and the obtained results are presented. Results show that optimization of maintenance decreases the risk and thus improves the plant safety. 

The possibilities afforded by SAM-controlled electrochemical metal deposition were already demonstrated some time ago by Sondag-Huethorst et al. [36] who used patterned SAMs as templates to deposit metal structures with line widths below 100 nm. While this initial work illustrated the potential of SAM-controlled deposition on the nanometer scale further activities towards technological exploitation have been surprisingly moderate and mostly concerned with basic studies on metal deposition on uniform, alkane thiol-based SAMs [37-40] that have been extended in more recent years to aromatic thiols [41-43]. A major reason for the slow development of this area is that electrochemical metal deposition with, in principle, the advantage of better control via the electrochemical potential compared to none-lectrochemical methods such as electroless metal deposition or evaporation, is quite critical in conjunction with SAMs. Relying on their ability to act as barriers for charge transfer and particle diffusion, the minimization of defects in and control of the structural quality of SAMs are key to their performance and set the limits for their nanotechnological applications. 

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