Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

A Novel Approach To Orbital Debris Mitigation, Timothy S. Turk

Doctoral Dissertations

Since mankind launched the first satellite into orbit in 1957, we have been inadvertently, yet deliberately, creating an environment in space that may ultimately lead to the end of our space exploration. Space debris, more specifically, orbital debris is a growing problem that must be dealt with sooner, rather than later. Several ideas have been developed to address the complex problem of orbital debris mitigation.

This research will investigate the possibility of removing orbital debris from the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) regime by using a metaheuristic algorithm to maximize collection of debris resulting from the February 2009 on-orbit collision of …

Novel Mixed Integer Programming Approaches To Unit Commitment And Tool Switching Problems, Najmaddin Akhundov

Doctoral Dissertations

In the first two chapters, we discuss mixed integer programming formulations in Unit Commitment Problem. First, we present a new reformulation to capture the uncertainty associated with renewable energy. Then, the symmetrical property of UC is exploited to develop new methods to improve the computational time by reducing redundancy in the search space. In the third chapter, we focus on the Tool Switching and Sequencing Problem. Similar to UC, we analyze its symmetrical nature and present a new reformulation and symmetry-breaking cuts which lead to a significant improvement in the solution time. In chapter one, we use convex hull pricing …