A broken baffle on a water tube boiler would cause a/an _______?

A broken baffle in a water tube boiler disrupts the intended flow of gases or water through the system, which can lead to various inefficiencies. Specifically, when a baffle is broken, the combustion gases will not be properly channeled, causing an increase in temperature in the chimney. This occurs because the hot gases are not effectively cooled by the heat exchange process within the boiler, leading to the excess heat escaping through the chimney.

This disruption in flow results in heat that should have been extracted for steam generation being lost instead, thus raising the temperature in the exhaust system.

In the context of a water tube boiler, maintaining optimal flow and heat exchange is crucial for efficient operation, and any structural failure like a broken baffle affects this balance. The other options, while they might be impacted by other issues in the boiler, do not directly correlate to a broken baffle as clearly as the increase in chimney temperature.