Geocomp’s award-winning Resonant Column and Torsional Shear (RC-TS) testing system was developed in collaboration with Professor Vincent P. Drnevich of Purdue University and Professor John Hall of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

The LoadTrac II/FlowTrac RC-TS system is a fully automated system designed to measure the shear modulus and damping of soils at strains down to 10^-7. The unit completely automates saturation, consolidation, resonant column, torsional shear, and stress-path test phases. The system consists of a computer-controlled unit that utilizes an oscillator motor to apply cyclic torsional loading to the top of the specimen for a range of excitation levels.

Unlike other systems, a direct torque measurement is made at the bottom of the specimen to completely eliminate issues of back emf. Resonant column and torsional shear testing can also be followed by a stress-path triaxial test. The system is capable of displaying the current status of a test and graphically portraying the progress of the test in real time.