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Special Cases in Linear Programming

There are four special cases that can occur when solving linear programming problems: 1) an infeasible problem with no feasible solution, 2) an unbounded problem where the objective function value increases indefinitely, 3) alternate optimal solutions where more than one optimal solution exists, and 4) degeneracy where a redundant constraint does not affect the feasible solution region.

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Masha Naizli Menhat
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452 views

Special Cases in Linear Programming

There are four special cases that can occur when solving linear programming problems: 1) an infeasible problem with no feasible solution, 2) an unbounded problem where the objective function value increases indefinitely, 3) alternate optimal solutions where more than one optimal solution exists, and 4) degeneracy where a redundant constraint does not affect the feasible solution region.

Uploaded by

Masha Naizli Menhat
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Special Cases in LP

Four special cases that may occur in solving LP problems:


 An infeasible problem
 An unbounded problem
 Alternate optimal solutions
 Degeneracy

1. An Infeasible Problem – LP problem with no feasible solution.
 Infeasibility is a condition that arises when there is no solution to a LP problem that
satisfies all of the constraints given.

Example 3.8
Maximize Z= 2x1 + 6x2
subject to
4x1 + 3x2  12
2x1 + x2  8
x1, x2  0

No feasible solution

 The tableau is the final tableau because all Cj – Zj  0 . An infeasible problem is


detected when an artificial variable still in the final solution mix.

Cj Basic x1 x2 s1 s2 RHS
Var 2 6 0 0

2 x1 1 3/4 1/4 0 3
-M A2 0 -1/2 -1/2 -1 2
Zj 2 3/2+1/2M 1/2+1/2M M 6-2M
Cj-Zj 0 -1/2M+9/2 -1/2M-1/2 -M
2. An Unbounded Problem – the objective function value (for maximization problem) gets
very large without bound

 The objective function can increase indefinitely without reaching a maximum value.
 The solution space is not completely closed in.

Example 3.9

Maximize Z= 2x1 + 6x2


subject to
4x1 + 3x2  12
2x1 + x2  8
x1, x2  0

The solution is unbounded


3. Alternate Optimal Solutions – LP problem has more than one optimal solution.

 This is the case when the objective function’s isoprofit or isocost line runs perfectly
parallel to one of the problem’s constraint.
 Provide greater flexibility to the decision maker.

Example 3.10

Maximize Z = 60x1 + 60x2


subject to
3x1 + 3x2  90
2x1 + 4x2  80
x1 , x2  0

Corner points
X1 X2 Z
0 0 0
30 0 1800
0 20 1200
20 10 1800

 Two corner points having the same maximum value indicate the LP problem has
alternate optimal solution.
Alternate optimal solutions is detected if the final tableau has Cj – Zj value equal to 0 for
a non-basic variable.

Cj Basic x1 x2 s1 s2 RHS
Var 60 60 0 0
60 x1 1 0 2/3 -1/2 20
60 x2 0 1 -1/3 1/2 10
Zj 60 60 20 0 1800
Cj-Zj 0 0 -20 0

4. Degeneracy

 A redundant constraint is one that does not affect the feasible solution region.

Example 3.11

Maximize Z = 80x1 + 70x2


subject to
2x1 + x2  120
x1 + x2  60
x1  70
x1 , x2  0

Redundant
constraint

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