Multistability and chaotic beating of Duffing oscillators suspended on an elastic structure

We consider the dynamics of a number of externally excited chaotic oscillators suspended on an elastic structure. We show that for the given conditions of oscillations of the structure, initially uncorrelated chaotic oscillators become periodic and synchronous in clusters. In the periodic regime, we have observed multistability as two or four different attractors coexist in each cluster. A mismatch of the excitation frequency in the oscillators leads to the beating-like behaviour. We argue that the observed phenomena are generic in the parameter space and independent of the number of oscillators and their location on the elastic structure.