A kind of mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints (MPEC) is studied. By using the idea of successive approximation, a smoothing nonlinear programming, which is equivalent to the MPEC problem, is proposed. Thereby, it is ensured that some classical optimization methods can be applied for the MPEC problem. In the end, two algorithm models are proposed with the detail analysis of the global convergence.
In this paper, we describe a successive approximation and smooth sequential quadratic programming (SQP) method for mathematical programs with nonlinear complementarity constraints (MPCC). We introduce a class of smooth programs to approximate the MPCC. Using an 11 penalty function, the line search assures global convergence, while the superlinear convergence rate is shown under the strictly complementary and second-order sufficient conditions. Moreover, we prove that the current iterated point is an exact stationary point of the mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints (MPEC) when the algorithm terminates finitely.