Reliable p-Hub Network Design under Multiple Disruptions

Abstract

The design of optimal hub-and-spoke networks has been the objective of many research studies. More recently, several studies in this area have been concerned with incorporating failures of network entities (e.g., hubs and/or links) as a source of uncertainty in the formulation and solution of reliable hub networks. This study is focused on modeling and developing a solution approach for the multi-allocation reliable p-hub network design problem where more than one hub may be disrupted simultaneously. The objective is to minimize the expected cost of the network under all possible failure scenarios. A mathematical formulation is presented to select hubs and determine primary and backup connections for each origin-destination (O-D) node pair. An algorithm is suggested to generate primary and backup connections for an O-D pair for a given set of hubs. The hub selection model is then solved using a search algorithm. The computational results show that near optimal solutions for non-trivial problem size instances are obtained in a reasonable amount of time.