•Tube receiver with pin fin arrays inserting was introduced as tube receiver of PTR.•Average Nusselt number is increased up to 9.0% by using PFAI-PTR.•Overall heat transfer performance is increased up to 12.0% by using PFAI-PTR. Tube receiver with pin fin arrays inserting was introduced as the absorber tube of parabolic trough receiver to increase the overall heat transfer performance of tube receiver for parabolic trough solar collector system. The Monte Carlo ray tracing method (MCRT) coupled with Finite Volume Method (FVM) was adopted to investigate the heat transfer performance and flow characteristics of tube receiver for parabolic trough solar collector system. To validate the feasibility of the developed MCRT and FVM combined method, the numerical results have been compared with experimental results conducted in the DISS test facility in Spain and the max relative error is less than 5%. The numerical results indicated that the introduction of absorber tube with pin fin arrays inserting design for the absorber tube of the parabolic trough receiver can effectively enhance the heat transfer performance. The average Nusselt number can be increased up to 9.0% and the overall heat transfer performance factor can be increased up to 12.0% when the tube receiver with pin fin arrays inserting was used.