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The purpose of this paper is to explore the steady state and dynamical behavior of thin, axisymmetric, viscous accretion disks. To facilitate an analytical treatment we replace the energy equation with a general polytropic assumption. The asymptotic expansion of Kluźniak & Kita (2000, Three-dimensional structure of an alpha accretion disk [arXiv:astro-ph/0006266]), which extended the method of Regev (1983, A&A, 126, 146) to a full steady polytropic disk (with n = 3/2), is further developed and implemented for both the steady (for any polytropic index) and time-dependent problems. The spatial form and temporal behavior of selected dynamical disturbances are studied in detail. It is shown that the transient dynamics resulting from initial perturbations on the linearly stable steady state gives rise to substantial growth of perturbations. We identify the initial perturbation space which leads to such transient growth and provide analytical solutions which manifest this behavior three terms (physical causes) responsible for the appearance of transient dynamics are identified. Two depend explicitly on the viscosity while the third one is relevant also for inviscid disks. The main conclusion we draw is that transient dynamics and, in particular, significant perturbation energy amplification occurs in disks on a global scale. We speculate on the possible implications of these findings to accretion disk theory.

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