Finding the optimal set of parking locations for maintenance trains in the Dutch railway network: An optimisation approach using a combination of discrete-event simulation and simulated annealing

The Dutch railway system is subject to maintenance, which is carried out by a group of rail contractors who need parking space to park and prepare trains in between projects. The objective of this study is to minimise the total costs as a result of the distance travelled by maintenance trains and the preservation of the included parking...

Performance Assessment of Global Optimization Algorithms in Automatic Calibration of Groundwater Models

Calibration of groundwater models can be done manually by comparing the measured and computed groundwater heads or automatically using algorithms which do the work for you. Modules for this purpose are included in or linked externally to traditional groundwater modelling software and used. One such module PEST (Parameter ESTimation) uses the...

Ranking items: Is solving a seriation problem a good alternative for existing methods?

In this dissertation we look at the seriation problem and the applications of this problem. Given a set of items, we try to find an ordering based on the similarity between the items. We start by explaining the mathematical theory behind the seriation problem. Then we describe a couple of different methods that can be used to find a solution for...