  A sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm is designed for nonsmooth
optimization problems with upper-C^2 objective functions. Upper-C^2 functions
are locally equivalent to difference-of-convex (DC) functions with smooth
convex parts. They arise naturally in many applications such as certain classes
of solutions to parametric optimization problems, e.g., recourse of stochastic
programming, and projection onto closed sets. The proposed algorithm conducts
line search and adopts an exact penalty merit function. The potential
inconsistency due to the linearization of constraints are addressed through
relaxation, similar to that of Sl_1QP. We show that the algorithm is globally
convergent under reasonable assumptions. Moreover, we study the local
convergence behavior of the algorithm under additional assumptions of
Kurdyka-{\L}ojasiewicz (KL) properties, which have been applied to many
nonsmooth optimization problems. Due to the nonconvex nature of the problems, a
special potential function is used to analyze local convergence. We show that
under acceptable assumptions, upper bounds on local convergence can be proven.
Additionally, we show that for a large number of optimization problems with
upper-C^2 objectives, their corresponding potential functions are indeed KL
functions. Numerical experiment is performed with a power grid optimization
problem that is consistent with the assumptions and analysis in this paper.
