Unsteady-state periodic operations can improve the optimal steady-state performance of nonlinear chemical processes. To examine if the optimal periodic operation is proper and to obtain the optimal forcing functions subject to various control and state constraints it is suggested in this paper to convert the problems into a form which is suitable for constrained nonlinear programming. The adopted numerical optimization method is based on employing the control parametrization technique and is thus capable of dealing with the problem of multiple input forcings and obtaining optimal forcing functions and/or parameters while subject to general constraints. Besides, it provides information about to what extent the process performance can be improved by adopting the optimal periodic control.