Unsteady heat‐generating natural convective viscous dissipative fluid flow through a permeable steady‐periodic vertical channel in the presence of heat source is studied. The coupled partial differential governing equations of the problem are simplified to obtain second‐order nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The resulting differential equations are solved using differential transform method to obtain approximate solutions for the momentum and energy equations. The impacts of pertinent parameters, such as heat source/sink (δ), Prandtl number (italicPr), viscous heating (λ), suction/injection (S), and Strouhal number (italicSt), on the velocity and temperature distributions in the periodic regime are illustrated using graphs and discussed. From the computational results, it is observed that an increase in the values of heat source/sink parameter (δ) in the presence of viscous dissipation has significant influence on the flow and heat transfer. This study provides useful information in handling and processing the extraction of crude‐oil‐based slurries.