Bifurcations of self-excitation regimes in a Van der Pol oscillator with a nonlinear energy sink

The paper investigates regimes of self-excitation in a Van der Pol oscillator with an attached nonlinear energy sink (NES). Initial equations are reduced by averaging to a 3D system. The small relative mass of the NES justifies analysis of this averaged system as singularly perturbed with two “slow” and one “super–slow” variable. Such an approach, in turn, provides a complete analytic description of possible response regimes. In addition to almost unperturbed limit cycle oscillations (LCOs), the system can exhibit complete elimination of self-excitation, small-amplitude LCOs as well as excitation of a quasiperiodic strongly modulated response (SMR). In the space of parameters, the latter can be approached by three distinct bifurcation mechanisms: canard explosion, Shil’nikov bifurcation and heteroclinic bifurcation. Some of the above oscillatory regimes can co-exist for the same values of the system parameters. In this case, it is possible to establish the basins of attraction for the co-existing regimes. Direct numeric simulations demonstrate good coincidence with the analytic predictions.