Global and local convergence of a penalty-free method for nonlinear programming

We present a class of trust region algorithms that do not use any penalty function or a filter for nonlinear equality constrained optimization. In each iteration, the infeasibility is controlled by a progressively decreasing upper limit and trial steps are computed by a Byrd–Omojokun-type trust region strategy. Measures of optimality and infeasibility are computed, whose relationship serves as a criterion on which the algorithm decides which one to focus on improving. As a result, the algorithm keeps a balance between the improvements on optimality and feasibility even if no restoration phase which is required by filter methods is used. The framework of the algorithm ensures the global convergence without assuming regularity or boundedness on the iterative sequence. By using a second order correction strategy, Marato’s effect is avoided and fast local convergence is shown. The preliminary numerical results are reported.