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