The main purpose of this paper is to study the following semi-linear structurally damped wave equation with nonlinearity of derivative type: u tt − Δu + (−Δ) ∕2 u t = |u t | p , u(0, x) = u 0 (x), u t (0, x) = u 1 (x), with > 0, n ≥ 1, ∈ (0, 2], and p > 1. In particular, we would like to prove the nonexistence of global weak solutions by using a new test function and suitable sign assumptions on the initial data in both the subcritical case and the critical case.