The Poynting vector field is used to show preliminary results for the energy flow both at the surface and inside an ensonified fluid loaded elastic cylindrical shell for both forward and retrograde propagating waves. The present work uses a method adapted from a simpler technique due to Kaduchak and Marston [G. Kaduchak and P. L. Marston, ‘‘Traveling‐wave decomposition of surface displacements associated with scattering by a cylindrical shell: Numerical evaluation displaying guided forward and backward wave properties,’’ J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 98, 3501–3507 (1995)] to isolate unidirectional energy flows.