National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers Terry Joseph Hendricks and Thomas Thoensen have developed a passive cooling system for a vehicle that transfers heat from an overheated internal component, for example, an instrument panel, to an external portion of the vehicle, for example, a side body panel. The passive cooling system includes one or more heat pipes having an evaporator section embedded in the overheated internal component and a condenser section at the external portion of the vehicle. The evaporator and condenser sections are in fluid communication. The passive cooling system may also include a thermally conductive film for thermally connecting the evaporator sections of the heat pipes.
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