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Solving the Quadratic Assignment Problem

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems ((LNE,volume 396))

Abstract

We are reporting our experiences with five algorithms, all of them based on simulated annealing, to solve the quadratic assignment problem. This combinatorial problem seeks to assign “n” facilities to “n” locations so that the total flow will be minimized. This problem has many practical applications.

The five algorithms are the combination of different known strategies to design simulated annealing algorithms. These strategies are mainly related to procedures for neighbor generations and for cooling processes.

Extensive numerical experiments have been performed with three well-known examples where n = 15, 20, and 30, respectively. Our results show that simulated annealing is an efficient and reliable heuristic method to solve the quadratic assignment problem. All the five algorithms gave satisfactory results within 3% of the global optimum, but some design strategies are better than others.

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References

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© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Andersen, K., Vidal, R.V.V. (1993). Solving the Quadratic Assignment Problem. In: Vidal, R.V.V. (eds) Applied Simulated Annealing. Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, vol 396. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46787-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46787-5_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-56229-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-46787-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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