Title: Henri Bénard: Thermal convection and vortex shedding,
Abstract: We present in this article the work of Henri Bénard (1874-1939), French
physicist who began the systematic experimental study of two hydrodynamic
systems: the thermal convection of fluids heated from below (the
Rayleigh-Bénard convection and the Bénard-Marangoni convection) and the
periodical vortex shedding behind a bluff body in a flow (the
Bénard-Kármán vortex street). Across his scientific biography, we review
the interplay between experiments and theory in these two major subjects of
fluid mechanics.