Minimax Under Transportation Constrains: 27 (Applied Optimization, 27) - Hardcover

Tsurkov, Vladimir; Mironov, A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0792356098 ISBN 13: 9780792356097

Publisher: Springer, 1999

Synopsis

Transportation problems belong to the domains mathematical program­ ming and operations research. Transportation models are widely applied in various fields. Numerous concrete problems (for example, assignment and distribution problems, maximum-flow problem, etc. ) are formulated as trans­ portation problems. Some efficient methods have been developed for solving transportation problems of various types. This monograph is devoted to transportation problems with minimax cri­ teria. The classical (linear) transportation problem was posed several decades ago. In this problem, supply and demand points are given, and it is required to minimize the transportation cost. This statement paved the way for numerous extensions and generalizations. In contrast to the original statement of the problem, we consider a min­ imax rather than a minimum criterion. In particular, a matrix with the minimal largest element is sought in the class of nonnegative matrices with given sums of row and column elements. In this case, the idea behind the minimax criterion can be interpreted as follows. Suppose that the shipment time from a supply point to a demand point is proportional to the amount to be shipped. Then, the minimax is the minimal time required to transport the total amount. It is a common situation that the decision maker does not know the tariff coefficients. In other situations, they do not have any meaning at all, and neither do nonlinear tariff objective functions. In such cases, the minimax interpretation leads to an effective solution.

About this title

Synopsis

This monograph is devoted to transportation problems with minimax criteria. The cost function of the classical transportation problem contains tariff coefficients. It is a common situation that the decision-maker does not know their values. In other situations, they do not have any meaning at all, and neither do nonlinear tariff objective functions. Instead of the classical cost function, a minimax cost function is introduced. In other words, a matrix with the minimal largest element is sought in the class of matrices with non-negative elements and given sums of row and column elements. The problem may also be interpreted as follows: suppose that the shipment time is proportional to the amount to be shipped. Then, the minimax gives the minimal time required to complete all shipments. An algorithm for finding the minimax and the corresponding matrix is developed. An extension to integer matrices is presented. Alternative minimax criteria are also considered. The solutions obtained are important for the theory of transportation polyhedrons. They determine the vertices of convex hulls of the sets of basis vector pairs and the corresponding matrices of solutions.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0792356098
• ISBN 13: 9780792356097
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320