Abstract: A VU-decomposition method for solving a second-order cone problem is presented in this paper. It is first transformed into a nonlinear programming problem. Then, the structure of the Clarke subdifferential corresponding to the penalty function and some results of its VU-decomposition are given. Under a certain condition, a twice continuously differentiable trajectory is computed to produce a second-order expansion of the objective function. A conceptual algorithm for solving this problem with a superlinear convergence rate is given.