The free propagation of acoustic plane waves through cellular periodic materials is generally accompanied by a flow of mechanical energy across the adjacent cells. The paper focuses on the energy transport related to dispersive waves propagating through nondissipative microstructured materials. The generic microstructure of the periodic cell is described by a beam lattice model, suitably reduced to the minimal space of dynamic degrees-of-freedom. The linear eigenproblem governing the wave propagation is stated and the complete eigensolution is considered to study both the real-valued dispersion functions and the complex-valued waveforms of the propagating elastic waves. First, a complete family of nondimensional quantities (polarization factors) is proposed to quantify the linear polarization or quasi-polarization, according to a proper energetic criterion. Second, a vector variable related to the periodic cell is introduced to assess the directional flux of mechanical energy, in analogy to the Umov-Poynting vector related to the material point in solid mechanics. The physical-mathematical relation between the energy flux and the velocity of the energy transport is recognized. The formal equivalence between the energy and the group velocity is pointed out, according to the mechanical assumptions. Finally, all the theoretical developments are successfully applied to the prototypical beam lattice material characterized by a periodic tetrachiral microstructure. As case study, the tetrachiral material offers interesting examples of perfect and nearly-perfect linear polarization. Furthermore, the nonlinear dependence of the energy fluxes on the elastic waveforms is discussed with respect to the acoustic and optical surfaces featuring the energy spectrum of the material. As final remark, the occurrence of negative refraction phenomena is found to characterize the high-frequency optical surface of the frequency spectrum. (Andrea Bacigalupo) tal lattice, and related its flux density to the particle velocities through the concept of characteristic impedance [3,4]. Almost concurrently, Maurice A. Biot established some general theorems relating the group wave velocity and the energy velocity in anisotropic, non-homogeneous, non-dissipative media [5]. Over the last decades, specific issues related to the transport of mechanical energy have been treated in different monographs concerning anisotropic elastic solids [6], viscoelastic heterogeneous solids and fluids [7], anisotropic, anelastic, porous and electromagnetic materials [8], viscoelastic layered media [9]. Occasional but sharp attention has been specifically devoted to the flow of mechanical energy in periodic systems, including crystal lattices [10,11] and structural assemblies [12,13].The essential idea, shared by the largest majority of literature studies, is that strict formal and substantial analogies can be established between the radiation of electromagnetic energy and the transfer of mechanical energy [14]. According to this standpoint, the well-known Poyn...