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The interior of propellant tanks are usually portrayed as empty of structural elements. Here is the interior of a liquid hydrogen tank during assembly at the NASA rocket factory, with humans for scale:

enter image description here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_external_tank#/media/File:Space_Shuttle_external_tank_assembly_01.jpg

There are sometimes plumbing parts or anti-slosh devices, but not structural elements.

Here is a Saturn 1 kerosene tank with in-flight video of anti-slosh baffles in action:

enter image description here

An empty cylinder is structurally efficient, especially for a pressurized tank. But asymmetric loads, such as hard points for strap-on SRBs may benefit from internal bracing.

Do rocket propellant tanks ever use internal structural elements?

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    $\begingroup$ Highly related space.stackexchange.com/q/38103/6944 $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Oct 8 at 14:14
  • $\begingroup$ @OrganicMarble ... I'm interested in how off-axis loads, such as from SRBs, are carried. Question edited. $\endgroup$
    – Woody
    Commented Oct 8 at 14:24
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    $\begingroup$ For shuttle and SLS, the SRB structures are between the tanks. space.stackexchange.com/a/36349/6944 $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Oct 8 at 14:26
  • $\begingroup$ A hollow cylinder is not as structurally efficient as a sphere. The forces caused by internal pressure in circumference direction is two times of the force in axial direction. $\endgroup$
    – Uwe
    Commented Oct 8 at 14:34

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