TY - JOUR A1 - Heinz, Stefan A1 - Schlechte, Thomas A1 - Stephan, Rüdiger A1 - Winkler, Michael T1 - Solving steel mill slab design problems JF - Constraints N2 - The steel mill slab design problem from the CSPLIB is a combinatorial optimization problem motivated by an application of the steel industry. It has been widely studied in the constraint programming community. Several methods were proposed to solve this problem. A steel mill slab library was created which contains 380 instances. A closely related binpacking problem called the multiple knapsack problem with color constraints, originated from the same industrial problem, was discussed in the integer programming community. In particular, a simple integer program for this problem has been given by Forrest et al. (INFORMS J Comput 18:129–134, 2006). The aim of this paper is to bring these different studies together. Moreover, we adapt the model of Forrest et al. (INFORMS J Comput 18:129–134, 2006) for the steel mill slab design problem. Using this model and a state-of-the-art integer program solver all instances of the steel mill slab library can be solved efficiently to optimality. We improved, thereby, the solution values of 76 instances compared to previous results (Schaus et al., Constraints 16:125–147, 2010). Finally, we consider a recently introduced variant of the steel mill slab design problem, where within all solutions which minimize the leftover one is interested in a solution which requires a minimum number of slabs. For that variant we introduce two approaches and solve all instances of the steel mill slab library with this slightly changed objective function to optimality. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10601-011-9113-8 VL - 17 IS - 1 SP - 39 EP - 50 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Schlechte, Thomas A1 - Swarat, Elmar T1 - Railway Track Allocation -- Simulation, Aggregation, and Optimization JF - Proc. 1st International Workshop on High-speed and Intercity Railways (IWHIR 2011) N2 - Today the railway timetabling process and the track allocation is one of the most challenging problems to solve by a railway company. Especially due to the deregulation of the transport market in the recent years several suppliers of railway traffic have entered the market in Europe. This leads to more potential conflicts between trains caused by an increasing demand of train paths. Planning and operating railway transportation systems is extremely hard due to the combinatorial complexity of the underlying discrete optimization problems, the technical intricacies, and the immense size of the problem instances. In order to make best use of the infrastructure and to ensure economic operation, efficient planning of the railway operation is indispensable. Mathematical optimization models and algorithms can help to automatize and tackle these challenges. Our contribution in this paper is to present a renewed planning process due to the liberalization in Europe and an associated concept for track allocation, that consists of three important parts, simulation, aggregation, and optimization. Furthermore, we present results of our general framework for real world data. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27963-8 VL - 2 IS - 148 SP - 53 EP - 70 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Reuther, Markus A1 - Schlechte, Thomas A1 - Weider, Steffen T1 - A Hypergraph Model for Railway Vehicle Rotation Planning JF - 11th Workshop on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modelling, Optimization, and Systems N2 - We propose a model for the integrated optimization of vehicle rotations and vehicle compositions in long distance railway passenger transport. The main contribution of the paper is a hypergraph model that is able to handle the challenging technical requirements as well as very general stipulations with respect to the ``regularity'' of a schedule. The hypergraph model directly generalizes network flow models, replacing arcs with hyperarcs. Although NP-hard in general, the model is computationally well-behaved in practice. High quality solutions can be produced in reasonable time using high performance Integer Programming techniques, in particular, column generation and rapid branching. We show that, in this way, large-scale real world instances of our cooperation partner DB Fernverkehr can be solved. Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4230/OASIcs.ATMOS.2011.146 VL - OpenAccess Series in Informatics (OASIcs) IS - 20 SP - 146 EP - 155 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schlechte, Thomas T1 - Railway Track Allocation - Simulation and Optimization JF - Proceedings of 4th International Seminar on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis (IAROR) N2 - Today the railway timetabling process and the track allocation is one of the most challenging problems to solve by a railway infrastructure provider. Especially due to the deregulation of the transport market in the recent years several suppliers of railway traffic have entered the market. This leads to an increase of slot requests and then it is natural that conflicts occur among them. Furthermore, railway infrastructure networks consist of very expensive assets, even more they are rigid due to the long-term upgrade process. In order to make best use of these valuable infrastructure and to ensure economic operation, efficient planning of the railway operation is indispensable. Mathematical optimization models and algorithmic methodology can help to automatize and tackle these challenges. Our contribution in this paper is to present a renewed planning process due to the liberalization in Europe and a general framework to support the integration of simulation and optimization for railway capacity allocation. Y1 - 2011 VL - 4 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Blanco, Marco A1 - Schlechte, Thomas T1 - Analysis of Micro-Macro Transformations of Railway Networks N2 - A common technique in the solution of large or complex optimization problems is the use of micro-macro transformations. In this paper, we carry out a theoretical analysis of such transformations for the track allocation problem in railway networks. We prove that the cumulative rounding technique of Schlechte et al. satisfies two of three natural optimality criteria and that this performance cannot be improved. We also show that under extreme circumstances, this technique can perform inconvieniently by underestimating the global optimal value. T3 - ZIB-Report - 13-65 Y1 - 2013 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-42710 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Mehrgardt, Julika A1 - Reuther, Markus A1 - Schlechte, Thomas A1 - Waas, Kerstin T1 - Re-optimization of Rolling Stock Rotations N2 - The Rolling Stock Rotation Problem is to schedule rail vehicles in order to cover timetabled trips by a cost optimal set of vehicle rotations. The problem integrates several facets of railway optimization, i.e., vehicle composition, maintenance constraints, and regularity aspects. In industrial applications existing schedules often have to be re-optimized to integrate timetable changes or construction sites. We present an integrated modeling and algorithmic approach for this task as well as computational results for industrial problem instances of DB Fernverkehr AG. T3 - ZIB-Report - 13-60 Y1 - 2013 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-42569 SN - 1438-0064 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Fügenschuh, Armin A1 - Klug, Torsten A1 - Schang, Thilo A1 - Schlechte, Thomas A1 - Schülldorf, Hanno T1 - The Freight Train Routing Problem for Congested Railway Networks with Mixed Traffic JF - Transportation Science N2 - We consider the following freight train routing problem (FTRP). Given is a transportation network with fixed routes for passenger trains and a set of freight trains (requests), each defined by an origin and destination station pair. The objective is to calculate a feasible route for each freight train such that the sum of all expected delays and all running times is minimal. Previous research concentrated on microscopic train routings for junctions or inside major stations. Only recently approaches were developed to tackle larger corridors or even networks. We investigate the routing problem from a strategic perspective, calculating the routes in a macroscopic transportation network of Deutsche Bahn AG. In this context, macroscopic refers to an aggregation of complex and large real-world structures into fewer network elements. Moreover, the departure and arrival times of freight trains are approximated. The problem has a strategic character since it asks only for a coarse routing through the network without the precise timings. We provide a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) formulation for the FTRP, which is a multicommodity flow model on a time-expanded graph with additional routing constraints. The model’s nonlinearities originate from an algebraic approximation of the delays of the trains on the arcs of the network by capacity restraint functions. The MINLP is reduced to a mixed-integer linear model (MILP) by piecewise linear approximation. The latter is solved by a state-of-the art MILP solver for various real-world test instances. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2015.0656 VL - 50 IS - 2 SP - 408 EP - 423 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Grimm, Boris A1 - Reuther, Markus A1 - Schlechte, Thomas T1 - Template based re-optimization of rolling stock rotations T2 - Proceedings of Conference on Advanced Systems in Public Transport 2015 (CASPT2015) N2 - Rolling stock, i.e., rail vehicles, are among the most expensive and limited assets of a railway company. They must be used efficiently applying optimization techniques. One important aspect is re-optimization, which is the topic that we consider in this paper. We propose a template concept that allows to compute cost minimal rolling stock rotations under a large variety of re-optimization requirements. Two examples, involving a connection template and a rotation template, are discussed. An implementation within the rolling stock rotation optimizer rotor and computational results for scenarios provided by DB Fernverkehr AG, one of the leading railway operators in Europe, are presented. Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-57539 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Erol, Berkan A1 - Schlechte, Thomas ED - Hansen, I. ED - Wendler, E. ED - Weidmann, U. ED - Lüthi, M. ED - Rodriguez, J. ED - Ricci, S. ED - Kroon, Leo T1 - Optimization of macroscopic train schedules via TS-OPT T2 - Proceedings of the 3rd International Seminar on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis - Engineering and Optimisation Approaches Y1 - 2009 CY - Zürich, Switzerland ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schlechte, Thomas A1 - Tanner, Andreas T1 - Railway capacity auctions with dual prices T2 - Selected Proceedings of the 12th World Conference on Transport Research Y1 - 2010 UR - http://opus.kobv.de/zib/volltexte/2010/1233/ ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Erol, Berkan A1 - Klemenz, Marc A1 - Schlechte, Thomas A1 - Schultz, Sören A1 - Tanner, Andreas ED - Tomii, A. ED - Allan, J. ED - Arias, E. ED - Brebbia, C. ED - Goodman, C. ED - Rumsey, A. ED - Sciutto, G. T1 - TTPlib 2008 - A Library for Train Timetabling Problems T2 - Computers in Railways XI Y1 - 2008 UR - http://opus.kobv.de/zib/volltexte/2008/1102/ PB - WIT Press ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Schlechte, Thomas ED - Liebchen, Christian ED - Ahuja, Ravindra ED - Mesa, Juan T1 - Models for Railway Track Allocation T2 - ATMOS 2007 - 7th Workshop on Algorithmic Approaches for Transportation Modeling, Optimization, and Systems Y1 - 2007 VL - 07001 PB - Internationales Begegnungs- und Forschungszentrum für Informatik (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany ER -