A new multiple chamber trough solar collector and its working principles are introduced. A 3D computer model supported with optical analysis software is used to analyze the ray tracing of the solar light concentrating system. This investigates the flat receiver and cylindrical receiver respectively as well as determining the relationship between the receiving beam and the incident ray. By light tracing simulation, the distribution, width, eccentric magnitude of the image, and efficiency of the concentrated light varying with the incident angle can be calculated and visualized. Furthermore, the concentration ability of the system with flat receiver and cylindrical receiver is quantitatively analyzed and compared. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.