Research on Uncertain Network Design Problem

Abstract

In this study, a kind of uncertain network design problem, network design problem under uncertain construction cost, is researched.The discrete network design problem under uncertain construction costs deals with the selection of links to be added to the existing network, so as to minimize the total travel costs in the network. It is assumed that the value of the demand between each pair of origin and destination is a constant and the construction costs of each potential link addition follow a certain stochastic distribution. In this paper, a bi-level and stochastic programming model for the discrete network design problem is proposed. The construction costs of potential links are assumed as random variables and mutually independent with each other in this model. The upper-level model is a chance constrain model with the objective function of minimizing the total travel costs in the network, and the lower-level model is a user equilibrium model. The stochastic model is then transformed into a deterministic one. A branch-and-bound solution algorithm is designed to solve the deterministic model in an efficient way. At last, a computational experiment is conducted to illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the approach proposed in this paper. The results show that the stochastic model is more flexible and practical compared with the deterministic one.