Solar central receiver, which plays a dominant role in the radiation heat conversion, is one of the most important components in the solar tower plants. Its performance can directly affect the efficiency of the entire solar power generation system. In this study, an integrated receiver model for full range operation conditions was proposed in order to simulate and evaluate the dynamic characteristics of a solar cavity receiver. It mainly couples the radiation-heat conversion process, the determination of convective heat transfer coefficient, the temperature computation of receiver walls and the calculation and analysis of the thermal losses. Based on this model, the dynamic characteristics of the solar cavity receiver were tested by encountering a sudden solar radiation disturbance. In addition, the thermal loss was also calculated and analyzed with different wind conditions. The results indicated that the parameters of the receiver had a significant variation under the sharp disturbance of DNI if no control rules were imposed. The wind conditions can obviously affect the thermal losses and the value reaches its maximum when the wind blows from the side of the receiver (alpha = 90 degrees). In order to verify the validity of this model, the simulation results were used to compare the design points under the same input conditions, and the results showed that simulation data had a good agreement with design data. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.