A solar tower power plant with supercritical water as a heat-transfer medium in the central receiver is potentially one of the most promising solar thermal power technologies due to its high solar-to-electric efficiency. In this paper, the heat transfer of supercritical water in a vertical tube of a solar tower receiver has been investigated. A 3D mathematical model has been developed to investigate the distribution of heat flux in the circumferential direction of a circular tube heated by concentrated incident solar flux on one side. The RNG k-epsilon model with the standard wall function is employed to describe the turbulent flow of water from a liquid-like state to a gas-like state, and the results are validated with experimental data. For supercritical water in a tube heated on one side by concentrated incident solar heat flux, the maximum wall temperature is located on the sunward outside wall where the incident heat flux is at a maximum. In the pseudo-critical flow region, due to the drastic turbulent diffusion of supercritical water, the temperature distribution of the supercritical water in the tube is evenly distributed at the same flow cross section. To avoid deterioration in the heat transfer of supercritical water, the relation between the threshold incident solar heat flux and mass flux for the supercritical water has been provided. Furthermore, the Nusselt correlation which can be used to predict heat transfer coefficient of the vertical tube heated non-uniformly on one side by concentrated solar flux has been confirmed. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.