In this work, we propose an optimization approach for constructing various
classes of circulant combinatorial designs that can be defined in terms of
autocorrelations. The problem is formulated as a so-called feasibility problem
having three sets, to which the Douglas-Rachford projection algorithm is
applied. The approach is illustrated on three different classes of circulant
combinatorial designs: circulant weighing matrices, D-optimal matrices, and
Hadamard matrices with two circulant cores. Furthermore, we explicitly
construct two new circulant weighing matrices, a CW(126,64) and a
CW(198,100), whose existence was previously marked as unresolved in the most
recent version of Strassler's table
