.. _responses-objective_functions-nonlinear_inequality_constraints:

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nonlinear_inequality_constraints
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Group to specify nonlinear inequality constraints



**Topics**


nonlinear_constraints


.. toctree::
   :hidden:
   :maxdepth: 1

   responses-objective_functions-nonlinear_inequality_constraints-lower_bounds
   responses-objective_functions-nonlinear_inequality_constraints-upper_bounds
   responses-objective_functions-nonlinear_inequality_constraints-scale_types
   responses-objective_functions-nonlinear_inequality_constraints-scales


**Specification**

- *Alias:* num_nonlinear_inequality_constraints 

- *Arguments:* INTEGER

- *Default:* 0


**Child Keywords:**

+-------------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Required/Optional       | Description of     | Dakota Keyword     | Dakota Keyword Description                    |
|                         | Group              |                    |                                               |
+=========================+====================+====================+===============================================+
| Optional                                     | `lower_bounds`__   | Specify minimum values                        |
+----------------------------------------------+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Optional                                     | `upper_bounds`__   | Specify maximium values                       |
+----------------------------------------------+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Optional                                     | `scale_types`__    | How to scale each nonlinear constraint        |
+----------------------------------------------+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Optional                                     | `scales`__         | Characteristic values to scale each nonlinear |
|                                              |                    | constraint                                    |
+----------------------------------------------+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

.. __: responses-objective_functions-nonlinear_inequality_constraints-lower_bounds.html
__ responses-objective_functions-nonlinear_inequality_constraints-upper_bounds.html
__ responses-objective_functions-nonlinear_inequality_constraints-scale_types.html
__ responses-objective_functions-nonlinear_inequality_constraints-scales.html



**Description**


Specifies the number of nonlinear inequality constraint functions
returned by the interface.

The ``lower_bounds`` and ``upper_bounds`` specifications provide the
lower and upper bounds for 2-sided nonlinear inequalities of the form

.. math:: g_l \leq g(x) \leq g_u

When constraint bounds are not specified, the problem is assumed to
have one-sided inequalities bounded above by zero:

.. math:: g(x) \leq 0.0.

This provides backwards compatibility with previous Dakota versions.

In a user bounds specification, any upper bound values greater than
````+bigRealBoundSize (1.e+30, as defined in Minimizer) are treated as
+infinity and any lower bound values less than ``-bigRealBoundSize``
are treated as -infinity. This feature is commonly used to drop one of
the bounds in order to specify a 1-sided constraint (just as the
default lower bounds drop out since ``-DBL_MAX`` <

``-bigRealBoundSize``). The same approach is used for nonexistent linearinequality bounds and for nonexistent design variable bounds.

The ``scale_types`` and ``scales`` keywords are related to scaling of
:math:`g \left( x \right)` .  See the scaling information under
specific methods, e.g., method-\*-scaling for details on how to use
this keyword.


