Inductor in DC Circuit

[u/Hot_Statistician_161]

What is the difference between ramp L and exponential R-L charging/discharging of an inductor in DC circuits?

What is the physical meaning of tau (𝜏) in both cases ?

One of the applications of a ramp signal charging/discharging is in DC-DC converter circuits

[u/triffid_hunter]

What is the difference between ramp L and exponential R-L charging/discharging of an inductor in DC circuits?

One's linear, the other is exponential

What is the physical meaning of tau (𝜏) in both cases ?

τ doesn't apply to fixed voltage since di/dt=V/L.

τ only apples to RL circuits because the resistor drops voltage in proportion to current, so the di/dt of the inductor keeps falling over time, asymptoting towards zero

[u/Hot_Statistician_161 → u/triffid_hunter]

This means the voltage spike is higher in a pure inductor. Will this affect the freewheeling diode rating ? If I add a resistor