Abstract: This paper develops the nonlinear area ruling method applied to lifting configurations by using the matched asymptotic expansion and gives the conservational condition under which the integral strength of the equivalent sources- depending on the lift distribution is equal to zero. This conservational condition can be used to determine the corrective quantities of the above mentioned equivalent sources in the region of trailing edge of the wing. The computed results show that the method is capable of accurately predicting the transonic wave drag for general airplanes or their components which have zero lift or lift and providing optimal option for the low-cost wave drag configurations and the method has enough accuracy when applied up to both Ma∞ = 1.5 and α= 10°?.

Key words: transonic flow, matched asymptotic expansion, nonlinear area rule, wave drag