Abstract
This paper considers an imperfect repair model for which the repairable system is maintained preventively at periodic times and is replaced by a new system when a predetermined number of preventive maintenance has been applied. our main objective of this is to determine the optimal number of preventive maintenances before the system is replaced and the optimal length of interval between two consecutive preventive maintenances under a new repair model which is referred to as an ineffective preventive maintenance. Such a model assumes a periodic preventive maintenance in which the system is effectively maintained with a certain probability. Otherwise the system is not improved at all after each maintenance and thus the failure rate remains the same as before. The criteria to determine the optimal number of preventive maintenances and length of period is the expected cost rate per unit time for an infinite time span. We give the explicit expressions for the expected cost rate per unit time. Some numerical examples are presented for illustrative purposes.