The first part aims at providing the physical and theoretical framework of the analysis of density variations in fully turbulent flows. Its scope is deliberately educational. In the second part, basic data on dynamical and scalar properties of variable density turbulent flows are presented and discussed, based on experimental data and/or results from direct numerical simulations. This part is rather concerned with a research audience. The last part is more directly devoted to an engineering audience and deals with prediction methods for turbulent flows of variable density fluid. Both first and second order, single point modeling are discussed, with special emphasis on the capability to include specific variable density / compressibility effects.