Abstract: In order to study the collapse and subsequent particle flow disasters in mountainous areas, a series of particle column collapse tests were carried out by using particle columns with different particle size and height-width ratio. The variation trend of acoustic emission signals and dynamic parameters of particles’ movement during the collapse process was analyzed. The results showed that under direct monitoring, the energy parameter of acoustic emission signal was more suitable as an indicator for dynamic analysis than the counting parameter. Particle motion parameters and energy have a good linear relationship. As the particle motion speed increased, the rate of energy change increased correspondingly. Also, the particle displacement and the accumulated energy had a same corresponding relationship, and both conformed to the Boltzmann model curve in the time series. Different height-width ratios and particle sizes only changed the magnitudes of the kinetic parameters and the acoustic emission signals, but would not affect the trend between them. From the acoustic emission signal curve, it was possible to determine the stage of the movement of the collapsing particle columns, which was of great significance to monitoring and evaluation for collapse disasters.