The effect of freely suspended rigid particles on chaotic material transport in a two-dimensional cavity flow is studied. We concentrate on the understanding of the mechanism how the presence of a particle affects the dynamical system of the flow. In contrast to the case studied by Vikhansky ͓"Chaotic advection of finite-single bodies in a cavity flow," Phys. Fluids 15, 1830 ͑2003͔͒, we show that even a regular periodic motion of a single particle can induce chaotic advection around the particle, as a result of the perturbation of the flow introduced by the freely rotating solid particle. This perturbation is of a hyperbolic nature. In fact, stretching and folding of the fluid elements are guaranteed by the occurrence of the hyperbolic flow perturbation centered at the particle and by the rotation of the freely suspended particle, respectively. The fluid-solid flow problem has been solved by a fictitious-domain/finite-element method based on a rigid-ring description of the solid particle. A single-particle system is studied in detail in view of the dynamical systems theory and then extended to two-and three-particle systems.