Unsteadiness, instability and turbulence in trailing vortices

This paper is a review on the dynamics of vortices in fluids which get involved in aircraft wakes. Basic notions useful to appraise their dynamics are: inertial waves, 3D instabilities due to vortex interaction, vortex merging, vortex breakdown and turbulence. Each one of these topics is illustrated by means of experimental or numerical results. To cite this article: L. Jacquin et al., C. R. Physique 6 (2005).