A three-dimensional model of parabolic dish-receiver system with argon gas as the working fluid is designed to simulate the thermal performance of a dish-type concentrated solar energy system. The temperature distributions of the receiver wall and the working gas are presented. The impact of the aperture size, inlet/outlet configuration of the solar receiver and the rim angle of the parabolic dish are investigated. The results show that the aperture size and different inlet/outlet configuration have a considerable impact on the receiver wall and gas temperatures, but the rim angle of the parabolic dish has negligible influence. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.