With the aim to increase the overall heat transfer performance and reliability of tube receiver for parabolic trough solar collector system, asymmetric outward convex corrugated tube is introduced as the metal tube of parabolic trough receiver. An optical-thermal-structural sequential coupled method was developed to study the heat transfer performance and thermal strain of tube receiver for parabolic trough solar collector system. Heat transfer performance and thermal strain comparisons between conventional tube receiver and asymmetric outward convex corrugated tube receiver are conducted. The researches indicated that the usage of asymmetric outward convex corrugated tube as receiver can enhance the heat transfer performance and reduce the thermal strain effectively. By using asymmetric outward convex corrugated tube as receiver, the maximum enhancement of overall heat transfer performance factor is 148% and the maximum restrain of von-Mises thermal strain is 26.8%. •Asymmetric outward convex corrugated tube receiver is introduced as the metal tube of PTR.•Overall heat transfer performance factor is increased up to 148% by using ACPTR.•Regression equations are put forward for Nusselt number and Fanning friction factor.•Asymmetric outward convex corrugated tube can increase reliability of PTR effectively.