Open questions about homogeneous fluid dynamos: The VKS experiment

International audience; We consider several problems that arise in the context of homogeneous fluid dynamos such as the effect of turbulence on the dynamo threshold, the saturation level of the generated magnetic field above the threshold and its dynamics. We compare some of our predictions with the recent experimental results of the Karlsruhe and Riga experiments. Finally, we present the VKS experiment that we have designed to answer some of the remaining open questions. We study, in particular, the response of a turbulent flow to an external magnetic field.