🔍 Key Concepts

• Function of baffles in a boiler tube bank (what do they do to the gas flow and heat transfer?) • Relationship between gas flow direction and where the hottest gases contact the tubes and drums • Effects of losing gas flow control on tube surfaces vs overall combustion in the furnace

💭 Think About

• Ask yourself: If a baffle is gone, will the hot gases be better directed, or will they bypass certain areas? What does that do to tube temperatures? • Which of the choices is most directly related to where the hot gases actually travel after a baffle fails, rather than to how the fuel burns chemically? • Think about which component (tubes, drum, furnace) is immediately affected when the gas path is no longer forced across the tube surfaces.

✅ Before You Answer

• Clarify the primary purpose of baffles: to direct hot gases across tube surfaces to improve heat transfer and protect components. • Decide whether a missing/damaged baffle would make the gas path more or less controlled and where that would concentrate heat. • Eliminate any options that mainly deal with combustion quality instead of heat distribution and flow path.