A system for managing regeneration of a CDPF in a diesel engine. The system determines volatility of the accumulated soot by a weighting/indexing method to select a regeneration control strategy that protects the CDPF from thermal damage. The system determines the mass of wet soot and dry soot accumulated over the previous driving cycle and selects a management strategy to control the rate of temperature increase and the thermal gradient imposed upon the filter. The wet soot percent is an index for setting the regeneration temperature control profile for an allowable total accumulated soot mass as a function of the accumulated wet soot. The method also scales the soot mass regeneration threshold value based upon wet soot accumulation and accumulation rate and provides an indicator of combustibility of the soot accumulation. The method provides a temperature ramp rate, total regeneration time, and exhaust oxygen level required to control regeneration.