This study investigates the effect of gas velocity, direction, and configuration on arch formation and collapse during bulk granular material discharge through horizontal orifices. Experiments were conducted using cold quasi-2D (250 × 50 × 5 mm) and hot scale models (cylindrical shaft, D = 300 mm, H = 500 mm) with high-speed imaging (2000 fps, 1280 × 1024) across various materials. Uniform gas flow stabilizes arches, reducing the normalized mass flow rate Z_t/Z₀ to 0.20 ± 0.03 at critical gas velocity ratios W₁/W₂≤20 and area ratios L₁/L₂≥0.37. Conversely, localized gas jets increase Z_t/Z₀ to 1.45 ± 0.05. The scientific novelty lies in developing a unified torque-balance model that, for the first time, predicts critical counter-current gas velocities W_kr across different configurations within a ±28.9% error margin (n = 3, p < 0.05). These findings provide a quantitative basis for designing industrial systems such as shaft furnaces, pneumatic conveyors, and dosing units. Future work will focus on industrial-scale validation, extension to humid or adhesive materials, and complex geometries to further optimize gas-assisted flow control.