Can I control how frequently Safari refreshes when switching between pages?
Safari (for iPod and iPad) keeps website cache only in RAM, and therefore, once it runs out of RAM, it'll automatically destroy an entire page, forcing the refresh, disguising itself as an auto-refresh feature. You can only keep few pages respective to amount of your device RAM.

You can try a third-party browser that has offline caching, and it'll remedy the situation. like:


Mercury
iCab
Atomic Web Browser


or if you Limit the number of tabs open in Safari to 2 or 3. It won't refresh.